


The Places of the Ghost Boy

by Phantomgirl17



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-08-25 15:45:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 34,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16663651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phantomgirl17/pseuds/Phantomgirl17
Summary: “The ghost boy and another ghost came flying through here, and that Danny Phantom ghost boy called us ‘mom and dad’. He’s dead, and we are NOT his parents. How dare he think that he can call us that…”Danny cut her off.“Maybe he just misses his parents from when he was alive? Ever think of that?”Danny heard the anger and rage growing in his voice. He did want them to know eventually, just not by him saying it.“Maybe he’s lonely and you’re the closest thing he has to a family!”Danny shrank back as he heard himself yell. His mom got closer to him as he fell against the wall. Danny felt his head spin and his strength grow weak.“What did you just say? Are you defending the ghost boy?”





	1. The House

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hey guys! Just finished the first chapter of this piece. I'm not sure how many chapters it will be yet, or where it will go, but this was fun to write and should be updated pretty soon. I'm gonna try and have this completed as soon as possible since I've got some time on my hands and will finally have time to write by choice instead of for classes. Enjoy!

Danny stood outside talking to his older sister Jazz, watching as his parents worked on another project. Even on vacation in a house that they rented for a couple weeks, his parents couldn’t manage to stop working on new ghost hunting weapons. Danny rolled his eyes as his dad declared that it was done and his mom yanked the new device from Jack’s hands saying that she needed to calibrate it before it was safe to use.

They hadn’t really left Amity Park, they were staying in a different area of the suburbs to see how the ghost activity changed. Danny had already found the answer to that question - it didn’t really change. Still seeing ghosts all the time, quite a few of them being familiar old faces. He kept having to try and hide his ghost sense from his parents, and it was getting bothersome to Danny with so many ghosts around. Skulker, Ember, Technus, Youngblood, Johnny 13 and Kitty, the list went on and on. Any ghost he had seen before, Danny could have sworn he saw them at that rental house.

But, in Danny’s opinion, vacation was a vacation and meant to be enjoyed. He stood outside with Jazz most days to watch his parents and mess around a bit. Water balloons were thrown between the two of them and Danny was always able to dodge Jazz’s throws thanks to his practice in ghost hunting himself. Jazz had read a whole new textbook while Danny did some video calls with his friends back in their neighborhood. And then there had been a slight new change to how Danny fought ghosts that attacked him while his parents weren’t looking - he had to make it look like he was somewhere else.

His thoughts drifted from his current conversation with his sister as he remembered the rest of the past week. It was still two weeks until they went home. Jazz began waving her hand in front of Danny’s face and he snapped back to reality.

“What?”

“You spaced out. But I just noticed something.”

“What is it, Jazz?”

“Your hair. There’s a streak of white. Looks like you got Dad’s early grey hairs!”

Jazz began laughing as she pointed out Danny’s strip of bright white hair. He scowled at her and pulled his phone out to see if he could see it. He found a shocked look on his face as he saw a strip of white poking out of his messy hair.

“Jazz, it’s not funny! That’s not me getting Dad’s hair… it’s my ghost half poking through!”

He angrily whispered to her as she gasped herself.

“Don’t get mom and dad’s attention. Come on, follow me.”

Danny dragged his sister into the house to try and hide while he fixed his hair. Jazz watch carefully as he looked in a mirror in the hallway just out of their parent’s view. He looked like he was afraid, and that’s how Danny felt. His whole body was overworked and so his ghost half had tried to show itself since he was constantly changing between human and ghost.

“You know…”

Jazz looked at her fingernails while she spoke to try and keep her eyes off Danny.

“You could always just tell them about your powers.”

“And what? Be destroyed because they don’t believe me? If they figure it out they can come and talk to me themselves.”

Danny watched as Jazz quietly shook her head at him. Her eyes closed as her hair moved over her shoulders. He felt his cold ghost core grow strong and he went ghost, looking himself over and seeing that his hair was all white, he turned back to his human form as Jazz crossed her arms.

“Jazz, they want my other half dead. Well, as dead as you can make a ghost.”

Danny tried to distract his mind from old fights as he checked his hair over to make sure all of it was black.

“It’s better if they don’t know anything and I just keep quiet about it.”

He looked to Jazz. Her eyes pleaded with him to just tell them that he was Danny Phantom. He quietly shook his head as he sighed in relief from all of his hair being back to normal.

“Danny, you need to tell them eventually! What are you going to do? Wait until they’re laying in a hospital bed dying?”

“I don’t know, maybe. But I’m not going to tell them now. Mom and Dad don’t need to know about my secret identity. I’ll probably be one of two things. Dead, or never allowed to leave the house again.”

Jazz scowled.

“They wouldn’t lock you up like that.”

“Trust me, ghost hunting is dangerous, and they don't want their son in on it like I am. Either that or I’m a putrid ghost that’s taken over their son as a new body.”

He gave himself a wrinkled nose in disgust at what his parents had been able to think was the truth before their memories were erased the few other times they found out about him being a ghost. His body shivered at the thought of his older, evil self that had posed as him for a while.

“Danny? Are you okay?”

Danny looked up to his sister as he realized that he had sunk to the floor with his arms wrapped around his body. His jeans had a bit of dirt on them from his shoes and his shirt was bunched up halfway around his back, revealing scars from all of his ghost fighting. Several large bruises also covered his ribs and he knew that he had at least one broken, but he would never let Jazz know.

“I… I’m fine.”

Danny pulled himself up off the ground and tried to laugh off what happened, getting an even more suspicious glare from Jazz. He began walking toward the kitchen and began making excuses as to why he needed to be walking around - rather than just shaking off a few bad memories. He called out to Jazz,

“We should probably take something outside with us when we go so that it doesn’t look like we were in here for no reason. You want iced tea or lemonade?”

She shook her head to both options Danny gave her and he whined her name at her as a teenage response to make it look like he was fine, and he probably would be fine again in a few hours. Those were just bad memories.

“Jaaaaaaaaaazz… come on, just look at me! I’m fine. There’s no need to worry over the smallest little things.”

“Danny, you most certainly are not fine. Your hands are still shaking.”

He looked down, finally realizing that he had spilled lemonade on the counter and that it was sloshing around inside his glass. Maybe he was traumatized by some of his ghost fights, but he knew he would be even more traumatized if his parents found out about his ghost half. Or if they didn’t really think it was him. He shivered, his ghost half pouring cold ectoenergy into his human half making him cold. Danny’s mind began to wander again as Jazz pulled his glass out of his hand and walked him over to the couch to sit down. He sank into the soft, plush upholstery and looked around nervously. Were they being watched? Was he just being paranoid?

His eyes shot up from his lap as he felt a new wave of cold energy flood his systems and a thin blue wisp escaped his mouth.

“Danny, you don’t have to go. Mom and Dad are just outside. And you just collapsed in self-trauma. Please, Danny. Don’t go.”

Danny looked over at his sister and saw the pleading look in her eyes. He thought over what she had said. He rolled his eyes at her a moment later remembering that he was a ghost fighter. It was his job to protect the town and the people that lived there, and he had fought right after other traumatic experiences. The future of himself, the ghost king, anytime Vlad tried to do anything, even right after Freakshow had given him away to the whole world. What else was he supposed to do?

“Jazz, I’ll be fine. I mean, I was doing ghost fights right after other times I thought I would break down completely. Mom and Dad suck at ghost fighting, they need me to do this, whether they know it’s me or not.”

He looked to his feet as Jazz walked closer to him. Danny felt his sister’s warm hand brush against the side of his face until he was looking up again and met her gaze.

“Just… be careful. Okay?”

Danny nodded and gave off a small smile.

“I will. It’s only a little bit after noon, it’s just gonna be Skulker, and I’ve beaten him too many times to count at this point. I’m going ghost!”

Danny felt his core grow cold as his ghost half washed over him, his hair becoming white and his black jumpsuit replacing his usual T-shirt and jeans. He looked over and Jazz and gave off a confident smirk as she rolled her eyes at his cheesy switch from a geeky teenager to a fierce ghost hero.

“I’ll be back soon.”

Jazz smirk back at Danny and looked out the window to see that he was right about it being Skulker hanging around.

“I’ll distract our parents. Don’t get yourself hurt.”

She turned and walked out the door to find the older two Fentons as Danny phased through the ceiling to fight Skulker. He felt his mind wandering as he looked for the evil hunter.

‘Was Jazz right about me needing to tell our parents? Do I really need to tell them sooner rather than later? What if they try to kill me because I’m half ghost? No. I told myself when things first happened that they would either figure it out themselves and accept me or they would never know.’

Danny began to get lost in his thoughts as he scanned the skies for Skulker. Suddenly all the air got knocked out of him and Danny found himself flying higher into the air. His vision fell below him and he saw not only Skulker flying after him with his bazooka charging, but a deep wound gushing blood on his abdomen. Pain flared from Danny’s midsection and he screamed in agony loud enough that Jazz looked up in fear and it sparked their parent’s attention.

“Oh… crud…”

Danny forced his words out of his throat as he saw his parents follow Jazz’s gaze and see two ghosts that they hated. One that always attacked and their worst enemy - him. Danny tried to bring his body to a stop but felt his core flash freezing, letting him know that his injury was being healed and using too much energy for him to control his powers. He found himself falling after a few more minutes, his body making a large arch in the sky, Skulker and his parents chasing after him at full speed.

The air was knocked from Danny’s lungs as he collided with the hard, concrete sidewalk a few blocks away. He saw Skulker land before him as he counted how many broken bones he had. Just another couple ribs and an ankle. Not too bad since he could fly. Then Danny remembered that he had no control of his powers because of where Skulker had blasted him the first time, his body was focusing his energy there to make sure it healed quickly.

“Oh for crying out loud…”

Danny tried to pull himself off of the ground and balance himself on his good ankle. His parents came running up behind the ghosts and Danny had to focus enough energy to make a ghost ray change the aim from Skulker’s blaster to the sky rather than his parents.

“Mom, Dad, No!”

He screamed in fear and pain as Skulker attacked him with his fists.

“Now, Ghost Child, I shall finally have your pelt on my wall.”

“Ummm, that’s gross.”

“I don’t care what you think,” Skulker breathed into Danny’s ear. “You are going to be my trophy.”

“That is not going to happen.”

Danny pushed Skulker off of his chest and inhaled sharply at the release of his lungs. He looked to the side and saw his parents so close to them that they wouldn’t be able to miss a shot at him.

“Oh come on!”

Danny felt anger rising in his chest that increased the cold stirring in his core. His power was increasing with his anger.

As Jack and Maddie approached Danny flew off the ground, leaving his imprint in the concrete. He floated for a moment making sure he didn’t hurt enough to prevent him from fighting. He found he was good and flew off, leaving his parents shaking their fist and screaming that they would get revenge, but was quickly followed by Skulker.

Danny quickly shook his head, frustrated by how Skulker wouldn’t leave him alone after being beaten so many times.

“Why can’t you hunt something else?”

“Skulker hunts what he hunts, nothing more, nothing less. Now get back here!”

Danny rolled his eyes and blasted a ghost ray at his enemy. He watched as Skulker ran into it, getting hit square in the chest by a bright green beam of light and ectoenergy. Danny lumped his fist in the air, only afterward remembering his three broken ribs and clutching his chest at the sharp pain they sent up his body.

“Great.”

Danny barely managed to mutter a few curses to himself as he watched Skulker plummet to the earth below them. After soaring back down to the pavement where they now lay a giant pile of the tin ghost, Danny sucked him into the Fenton Thermos.

“Phew. That was a long fight for Skulker… I better get back to the family now.”

Danny flew off and landed in the room he was using in the rental house. Quietly he changed back to his human form and walked down the stairs to find his parents in a rage and Jazz trying to calm them down.

“What’s going on?”

Danny saw his mom rush up to him at his question, her eyes filled with anger, her words dripping in disgust and hatred.

“The ghost boy and another ghost came flying through here, and that Danny Phantom ghost boy called us ‘mom and dad’. He’s dead, and we are NOT his parents. How dare he think that he can call us that…”

Danny cut her off.

“Maybe he just misses his parents from when he was alive? Ever think of that?”

Danny heard the anger and rage growing in his voice. He did want them to know eventually, just not by him saying it.

“Maybe he’s lonely and you’re the closest thing he has to a family!”

Danny shrank back as he heard himself yell. His mom got closer to him as he fell against the wall. Danny felt his head spin and his strength grow weak.

“What did you just say? Are you defending the ghost boy?”

“I… I’m sorry…”

Danny pulled himself off the wall and started walking away, not really caring when he flickered some of his energy into the tips of his fingers and made them shine a fluorescent green behind his back as he walked towards the door.

More of his power fell back to healing him, and Danny was thankful it had scabbed over so that blood wasn’t sleeping through his shirt. He felt his body flop against his bed and cringed as he moved his broken ribs. He heard a soft knock on the door.

“Danny? You in there?”

“Jazz? That you?”

As his sister came walking into his false room Danny sat up and looked over himself to make sure he didn’t look hurt. He cringed as he saw his disfigured ankle and chest. Jazz saw them too.

“Are you okay after what Mom and Dad said?”

Danny looked up at his sister as she sat down on his bed. He cringed at the pain that was sent up his spine at the movement of the bed.

“I guess. I just can’t manage to understand them. I protected them from Skulker and yet they still want that half of me dead… well, as close to dead as you can make a ghost.”

He popped his eyes up from his lap with his quick burst of humor to see if Jazz bought that he was okay. He saw her scowling at him and looked back down at his hand, crossing his legs on top of the bed, grunting in pain at his ankle as it healed.

“It doesn’t matter. They still want Danny Phantom dead. They’ll find out it’s me one way or another. I’ll tell them, they’ll see me change or…”

Danny quit talking quickly and glanced up to see Jazz look at him, she looked worried.

“Or what?”

She pulled his hands into her own and looked him in the eyes. Danny pulled his gaze away from her and pulled his hands away so he could run them through his hair. He exhaled softly and slowly before looking her straight in the eyes and giving her what he was most afraid of.

“Or they’ll find out that it’s me while dissecting me on a lab table.”

Tears stung at Danny’s eyes, and he didn’t say a word when Jazz began wiping them off of his face. He smiled at her.

“Thanks.”

“Just trying to keep your face dry.”

Before Danny knew what he was doing, he collapsed into Jazz’s arms hugging her, ignoring the pain that flashed through his whole body.

“Don’t ever leave me.”

Danny held his sister tighter in his arms, forgetting the pain flashing through his arms as his muscles held tightly. He felt Jazz’s hand brush over his hand and stop on the shoulder of his violently shaking body. Taking a deep breath Danny felt himself fall further against her body, his frail body small compared to her and the pile of blankets she was wrapping around the two of them, building a fort so they could keep things secret.

Danny let the air out of his lungs remembering that he had to let go of things from time to time, that he couldn’t always be a superhero like people thought he could. And he knew that Jazz was one of the people who believed him that being able to let things go was fine, it wasn’t weak or too mortal to be Danny Phantom. It was normal.

Jazz looked down at Danny, he could feel her eyes staring into the back of his head. He sat upright, slowly at first, until he was looking her in the eyes under a pile of blankets and pillows. He attempted a smile, only then feeling his broken ribs as he shifted positions. He cringed at the pain that flared up his spine and into his nerves as his bones scraped against each other.

“Danny, you should get that looked at.”

“What, and tell the doctor I fell off my bike? They're going to heal eventually. I’ll just put up with it for now.”

“Danny…”

Danny didn’t want to hear it anymore. He knew that she wouldn't let it die, and so he tried to change the subject, interrupting her midsentence.

“Hey, Jazz. Cool fort. I remember when we used to build these in the house when we were little, give it a secret password to get in, and basically live in these for days. Thanks for doing that while I was breaking down.”

“Danny, you can’t leave your wounds alone like that…”

She got a dark glare from Danny and sighed, leaning back in the tent of blankets and pillows.

“You know what, you're welcome. I thought maybe this would make you feel a bit better after letting your feelings go.”

Danny leaned himself back, slowly lowering his upper body so that he was laying on top of the bed on his back, pain subsiding in his ribcage. He smiled up at Jazz as she leaned over him making faces to try and distract him from the pain, but they both froze what they were doing when they heard a loud crash come from outside. Danny watched Jazz’s face form a look of fear and shock as she quickly whipped her head in the direction the noise came from.

“Jazz! You just hit me in the face with your hair!”

“Shhh. Danny, listen!”

Danny tilted his head slightly to free his ear from the blankets he was in the middle of. Silently focusing on hearing things, he heard shouting and a few gun blasts as he listened, but never felt his ghost sense go off. Maybe it was just a bit of practice for his parents.

Danny sighed in relief and Jazz calmed down. They both got up and looked out the window to see their parents using cardboard cutouts to try and give Jack better aim. The look of success on his face was great until you saw that he hadn't hit a single cutout, instead, he had managed to blast the fence of the house they were renting.

“Boy, I hope that's covered by insurance…”

Danny muttered to his sister as he walked away from the window, and he heard her laughing.

“What?”

She continued laughing at what Danny had said.

“Jazz, what are you laughing at?”

Jazz rolled her eyes at Danny, a few tears of laughter falling from her eyes.

“Oh Danny, you of all people should know that’s not covered by insurance. Remember how many things you’ve destroyed in your ghost fights?”

“Jazz, I don’t remember what is and what isn’t covered. Why do you have to know everything?”

He gave her a play frown and acted out the jealous little brother phase as she showed how smart she was. But Danny couldn’t hold the face long, and eventually, they were both laughing again after Danny’s face had been a mix between annoyed and trying not to smile. Jazz had even taken pictures of it on her phone, which Danny wasn’t happy with.

Things seemed to have lightened up for the day after the incident with Skulker and Danny’s parents until Danny felt a cold shiver slip up his spine and saw a thin, blue wisp escape from between his lips. Jazz seemed to notice it too. His ghost sense had just gone off.

Jazz nodded to him softly, barely moving her head, and he gave off a thankful smile as he rushed to the window to see what ghost it was. He didn’t see a single ghost, but his ghost sense had gone off and was never wrong, he knew there was a ghost somewhere in the area. Danny called out to his sister over his shoulder.

“Jazz, what time is it?”

She quickly looked down at the watching sitting on her right wrist.

“About two thirty. Why?”

“Time can tell me what ghost is attacking. They seem to have a usual schedule for, “Who’s turn it is to annoy and try to kill the ghost boy.” I'm not too fond of it.”

He stood there for a minute thinking out loud.

“Two thirty… that gives two options if they are still on the normal schedule today. So it's either the Box Ghost,  
Johnny 13, or…”

Danny froze in place, his lips refusing to move and his vocal cords failing to finish his sentence. The color draining from his face as it was forming a look of terror while he realized who the other ghost could be. Jazz walked over and placed her hand on his shoulder, pulling back after feeling his body freezing cold, colder than a ghost.

“Danny? What’s the matter?”

She felt him trembling as he stood, clutching the windowsill. A small name fell from his mouth, just barely louder than a whisper.

"Amorpho."

Jazz looked to Danny and gave him a questioning look.

"Amorpho? Who's that?"

The look of horror on Danny's face grew as he remembered his last fight with the ghost.

"He's an evil ghost, capable of changing form to be anybody, anything, anywhere. He disguises himself so that you can't tell it's him, and turns towns upside down by making people mad at one another. He ruins peoples' days and makes it almost impossible to find him. Sometimes he takes Johnny's turn of trying to get rid of me for good, but it tends to be pretty rare. I don't really know how to get rid of him or fight him, so I really hate when he shows up."

Jazz thought for a moment about what Danny said as he looked around carefully.

"Oh, him. He was the one who destroyed my scrapbook, right? I didn't know he had a name."

Danny nodded at her slowly to show that she was right and to clarify that he did, in fact, have a name. Danny felt his body shaking and forced himself to calm down, breathing deeply as he tried to figure out where his enemy was and who he was pretending to be.

"Jazz, does Mom or Dad seem to be acting funny?"

Jazz looked out the window. Danny watched her eyes scan over their parents for a moment before she pulled back to look at him.

"Danny, our parents are fine. It's you I'm worried about. There's another version of you out there."

"What?!"

Danny jumped off the bed and looked out the window. Sure enough, there were his parents and another one of him. Only it was his ghost half rather than his human half. The ghost was sitting by the fence, avoiding blasts from Jack as Maddie tried to get him to stop destroying the property they were renting.

A small sigh escaped Danny's lips as he saw Jazz cross her arms.

"It's never easy, is it, Jazz?"

He got a small smirk in response and listened to Jazz's footsteps as she walked up behind him and then leaned on the wall, arms still crossed, smirk still spreading across her face.

"For you? Of course not. Go, ghost boy. You can win."

Danny smiled back at his sister as he went ghost. His body temperature dropping and his outfit becoming his usual ghost hunting gear. Jazz looked him over before he left. Danny's suit showed where his ribs were broken from how much tighter it was than his usual t-shirt and jeans, and his eyes had dark circles under them from how much energy was already being used to heal what was left of his wounds.

Jazz gave a weary smile and a shaky thumbs up to her little brother before he turned and started to fly towards the fight.

"I'll be back Jazz, I promise."

She nodded, a little more sure of what her brother was doing, feeling proud of him. Danny could see that she was proud of him from how she smiled and the look in her eyes. He smiled back and turned, only to hear her call out to him.

"Danny wait!"

He turned himself back around to face her and saw a medium-sized metal object flying at his face, and quickly pulled his hands up to catch it before being hit in the nose. He didn't need more broken bones, after all.

"You may need this."

Danny looked down to the object in his hands. The Fenton Thermos. How could he have forgotten it? He looked up at his sister with a look of annoyance at her overprotective ways but really felt glad that she remembered what he couldn't.

"Thanks, Jazz. I will never forget this."

He gave her a cheesy superhero grin and flew off without another word. His parents were still in the backyard, dealing with the chaos known as Amorpho. It only seemed to be Danny Phantom to them. He watched for a moment to see what was going on. Maddie was mad at Jack, Jack was mad at Amorpho, and Amorpho was laughing his head off at the sight he was seeing. Maddie couldn't get Jack to stop shooting, Jack was destroying everything in the backyard at a pace so rapid it was hard to tell what order things got incinerated in. An annoyed sigh escaped Danny's thoughts as he decided how to attack.

Flying in at full speed would have to do for now. Danny felt wind rush over his face as he dove in to get the fake him to the ground and try to stop his parents at the same time. Thinking fast, he shouted out a quick witty banter.

"Hey, Amorpho!"

The ghost looked up at Danny and his mouth fell open at the sight of the ghost boy.

"You? I thought I'd never see you again!"

Danny scuffed at his comment and finished his banter.

"I thought when I told you to go eat bugs, you would be on TV making money?"

Without time to understand what Danny had said, Amorpho had been pushed into the dirt, face first, with Danny putting all of his weight into Amorpho's body with his shoulder.

Jack stood and watched with his mouth open, and Danny jumped a bit when he heard him ask Maddie a question.

"So Mads, which one do I destroy first?"

"I don't know, Jack. Only one of them can be the real ghost boy, but which one?"

"They're so similar either one could be the demonic being we hunt."

"Well, we're just going to have to kill them both Jack. Start with the one being pinned down with bugs in his mouth."

Danny looked up, his eyes pleading with his dad not to shoot either of them, but Jack didn't see that it was his son begging with his eyes. As Jack charged the gun, Danny jumped off of Amorpho, grabbed him by the back of the shirt, and flew into the air listening to the other ghost being choked by the collar of his fake jumpsuit.

"You're helping me?"

"I'm trying not to get killed."

Danny continued to fly upwards as Jack aimed. He had no sense of aim when things were upward, or ever really, but this gave Danny much less chance of being shot by the ectogun.

"Thank god he won't let mom touch the weapons. He wants to catch a ghost on his own."

Danny breathed slowly before pulling his phone out with the hand that wasn't holding Amorpho. He began typing in a number he had known by heart for years and exhaled slowly waiting for the other end to pick up.

"Hello? Danny?"

"Jazz?"

"Danny! You're okay! When mom and dad started..."

Danny cut her off.

"Jazz, no time. Go get the weapons away from mom and dad. I'm gonna have to wait until they're out of the way to deal with copycat here."

Amorpho squeaked a small, "hello" into the end of Danny's phone and received a piercing look from the real Danny Phantom as he tried to hear what his sister was saying.

"Sure thing, Danny. I'll have them out of your way in no time at all."

"Thanks, sis."

Danny hung his phone up quickly shoved it back into the pocket of his jumpsuit. He saw that he had dropped the Thermos that Jazz had tossed him on the ground when he was pinning Amorpho to the ground.

"You can't make things easy, can you?"

Amorpho shrugged at the question and gave off an annoying grin.

"I'm so done with this..."

Danny pinched the bridge of his nose and looked down. His parents were gone.

"Jeez, Jazz is quick. Time to end this."

Danny flew Amorpho back to the ground, making sure he couldn't speak and that he was gagging on the collar still clutching his throat. As he feet his the ground, the ghost tried to run from Danny, but Danny was faster. Almost silently Danny had run into him shoulder first, once again holding him to the ground.

"Back to eating bugs, are we?"

Danny smiled, but it quickly faded, followed by a shriek of pain. Amorpho had moved his arm so that Danny fell off of him and collided with the dirt, shoulder first, dislocating his left shoulder. The other ghost had also managed to grab the thermos from the ground as Danny attempted to get up off the ground. Blood ran from a cut on the edge of his face from a sharp rock that had been laying on the ground.

"It's over, Phantom."

"I don't think so."

Danny forced himself up into the air and flew towards his house where all of his ghost hunting equipment was hidden in his room. He looked back to see Amorpho flying after him and below him to see that the Fentons were catching up.

Danny groaned as he felt his shoulder being pressed by the wind and the stinging from his cut began to cut through the layer of shock guarding his nerves.

"Gotta fly faster..."

Danny's parents beat him to the house, and his mom shot him to the ground with an ectobaster. Concrete met his back first, the rest of his body falling behind, he felt horrid and knew he had broken at least another rib and broken his right arm all the way down to his wrist. Everything around him in his vision was blurry and distorted, so when he felt arms grab him by the waist and pull him away from where he had been laying, he thought it was just his imagination.

"Just destroy the ghost boy already!"

"We can't do that Jack, he has information we need."

The sounds of his parents' voices made Danny jump back to reality, shaking his head to clear his vision. Amorpho was standing not too far away from him and was just laughing while his parents looked at him funny. He was laying on the grass to his home, not far from his room.

"Mom, Dad, I..."

"Never. Call us that. Again."

Maddie's voice filled with anger as she blasted him in the side with an ectogun. Blood poured down Danny's side as he looked at the wound. His eyes flashed blue with disappointment. They weren't going to listen. Not to him, not to the ghost boy.

Danny quickly took the thermos from Amorpho's belt as he was laughing and sucked him into it. The Fenton's watched the only remaining ghost boy for a moment.

"I'm the real Danny Phantom. The other was just another ghost that pretends he's someone he's not. You've seen him before, you'll probably see him again."

His voice began to slur from his blood loss, and Danny felt his eyes permanently fade to blue from his energy fading. He heard a small gasp from his mom as she noticed the color of his eyes change, and quietly Danny flew back to the house they were renting. His thoughts drifted for a while as he felt wind fly over him, just waiting to see Jazz and bandage his wounds.

'Did she realize that it's me? Does she feel bad for blasting me now? Are they going to try harder to kill me because I called them mom and dad?'

Danny fell through the open window on the second floor, collapsing at his sister's feet by the fort she had built them earlier.

"Jazz, what would you do if I ran away?"

His voice had gotten so slurred that he was barely understandable. Blood seeped into the carpet after leaking from his still bloody side and a large gash in the back of his head where it met the pavement.

"Danny, you can't run away, you know that. But you need to be at the hospital. Even with ghost powers, you're not going to be able to heal quick enough that this won't have serious damage."

Danny smiled up at his sister from the floor, his face looking half drunk, his body almost destroyed.

"I'm fine, Jazz. Just look at me."

Danny tried to stand up but quickly fell forward after making it to his knees, his face was turned to the side while his shoulders held his upper body at a slant and his hips were positioned in the air. His face had grown pale, even in his ghost form and he quietly returned to his human state.

"Danny!"

Jazz fell to the floor beside him and turned him over, he was still breathing, still had a heartbeat, and somehow was still awake - still alive. A slam was heard from downstairs as their parents got home and Jazz quickly shouted out to them that they needed to see Danny. Maddie came running up the stairs at the sound of Jazz's voice, with Jack stumbling after her.

"Jazz? What's the matter?"

Maddie looked down at Danny who was fading between being conscious and unconscious. He smiled up at his whole family with a dorky grin and slurred a quick greeting to them.

"Danny! What happened to you?! You look like you were run over by a car!"

"He uhhhh... He fell out of a tree and landed on the sidewalk. That's all!"

Jazz hid her brother's secret, getting a small smile from him, but he spoke for himself.

"I got destroyed by evil ghost hunters is all."

"He's totally delusional. You guys should get him to the hospital."

Jazz gave a quick response and gestured for the door that the phone was out of. She gave a fake smile as she tried to guide her parents to get him to the hospital as quick as possible before he couldn't get any better. Maddie gave her a funny look and began to pick the phone up and dial for the hospital to pick him up. Jack looked at Jazz funny and kept trying to understand what Danny had said about being attacked by ghost hunters.

"Danny, you're going to be just fine. We're gonna get you the medical care you need."

Jazz whispered to her brother as Maddie said she needed to get her son to the hospital to the person who answered the phone. Jack wandered downstairs to answer the door when they got there, and Danny tried to speak again.

"It's all good, Jazz. I just need a small nap, that's all..."

Danny quickly passed out, the last thing he heard being a blood-curdling scream from his sister as she saw him pass out with green eyes.


	2. The Hospital

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Chapter 2 up and running! I'm working on the next chapter right now and am hoping to have it up in the next couple of days. I hope you guys are enjoying this, and sorry if it gets a bit darker than expected. As always, enjoy!

Danny awoke to the sound of a small beeping noise. Very infrequent, but on a straight rhythm. He heard a slight drip of liquid every few seconds. His vision was blurred so he had no way to recognize the area he was resting in. The only thing that stood out was the vibrant red blur that he felt had to be his sister's hair.

"Jazz?"

He croaked out his one word with enough volume that he saw the blob of color move against the dull, white background of the room. The walls, the sheets, the floors, even the tables were all plain white, just waiting for something like blood to stain them.

"Jazz, is that you?"

Danny felt his voice becoming more clear, his vision was beginning to clear along with it. An aching had begun in his head and left arm as he watched his sister walk over towards him. His head throbbing with every minuscule sound that touched his eardrums.

"Danny, are you alright?"

Jazz sounded worried and Danny tried to look her in the eyes. He tried to say that he was alright, but his voice caught in his throat as he attempted to lie to her.

"I... I'm..."

Danny didn't know what to tell his sister. She was always there for him but she was always way too overprotective in Danny's opinion. Not to mention that he didn't want anyone else to know his secret and was unsure if anyone else was watching or listening. He looked around to see if there were cameras watching him or voice recorders lingering in the room before he started talking to his sister again.

"You mean for almost being killed? I think I'm alright. But I'm not certain at this point."

He tried to give Jazz a quick smile but flinched as the pain in his head shot down his jaw as his lips moved upward. Danny looked around with clear vision. All he could really see without moving his head was his sister, the bed he was lying in, and a small wooden set of cabinets with one medium-sized television places in the center of them. Slowly he pushed himself to turn his head to the side, first the right, then the left. He saw where he was. A heart monitor, a saline drip, a few sizes of shot needles, an IV, and some blood pressure cuffs.

"Jazz...?"

She turned her head at her name and gave off a small, "hmmm?"

"Are we in the hospital?"

"Of course we're in the hospital. Danny, you were nearly killed. You lost so much blood you weren't going to make it without getting to the hospital."

As Jazz sat down beside his bed and grabbed his arm he flinched. It had been his left arm with his IV in it. That must have been where the aching was coming from. His head throbbed again as he tried to relax his muscles, his body giving out as he tried to relax himself and slowly lower his body back onto the bed.

A slight movement of the door caught Danny's attention in less than a second. He saw a couple of blue and orange blobs. His mind flew through ghosts it could be before he realized it was his parents' jumpsuits.

"Hi, sweetie..."

His mom looked nervous about seeing him. His dad had his head down, staring blankly at his hands as he stumbled into the room. Danny could barely keep his eyes on his parents, let alone make eye contact with them. They had nearly killed him, had attempted to destroy the other version of him - even after he gave them hints to his secret identity.

The flares of ghost rays from his fingertips, the acts of blue eyes in ghost form, taking the ghost boy's side in any argument. And his parents saw none of it. They ignored it. Danny felt his own head drop in disappointment, knowing now that he would have to tell them or never let them know. They were unaccepting of ghosts, of course, but they were also becoming unaccepting of their own son. Danny forced himself to look up again as he heard his mom's voice.

"The doctor said you had quite an accident. Four broken ribs, a broken right arm from your elbow to your wrist, a sprained left ankle, a dislocated right shoulder, 57 stitches in your side, and staples in the back of your head. For falling out of a tree that seems like a lot of injuries."

Danny refused to answer.

"Sweetie, is there anything you aren't telling us?"

Danny's eyes fell to his hands as his mom got closer to him. He still refused to answer. Not one movement of his head and his lips were tightly clamped together. Jazz looked over at their parents with a worried look in her eyes. Danny knew she wanted him to say something, but he couldn't bring himself to do so.

"Danny, you can say something."

Jazz tried to coax him along, with no results. Danny snapped back at her, his parents confused as to what he was talking about.

"What am I supposed to do? Reveal my other side to them and ignore the fact that even with the hints that they've been getting they can't seem to figure things out? It's not like I can make every person in the town like that part of me, Jazz. I told you. They can figure it out themselves or they can never know. I'm sick of having to deal with this conversation. You bring it up for the same answer, and just like always, it's either going to get me captured or killed."

Danny looked at his sister as she leaned away from him, easily taken aback by his strange outburst. He felt his eyes grow wide as he rapidly apologized to Jazz for what he had said. He had never meant to hurt her like that and was only upset because his parents were ignoring the obvious facts he gave them.

"Oh my god... Jazz, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I'm just saying that I don't want to tell them. I'm too afraid and since they haven't been picking up the hints I've been dropping..."

"Danny, what hints are you talking about? What is it your father and I don't know?"

"I... uhhh... It's..."

Danny found himself at a loss for words. His mind raced to try and find an excuse, but in the flurry of thoughts, all he managed to do was make himself invisible. Yanking the IV from his arm, he felt his body fall through the floor, a pair of hospital pants and an old t-shirt covering his body as he found himself on the floor of the main hospital level, his arm gushing blood from where the needle had been ripped out. But where did he go from here?

Jazz looked at her parents as they stared at the bed that Danny had been in moments before, their mouths hanging open, their arms dangling at their sides.

"Jasmine, where's your brother?"

"Uhhhh... under the covers..?"

Jazz clenched her teeth as she lied and her mom pulled back the blankets her brother had been surrounded by. He was gone. Had probably phased through the floor, his IV dangling by the bed, his heart monitor giving a straight beep indicating that he was dead. Jazz thought for a minute.

 

"What the Hell?"

Her mom sounded mad, and Jazz pulled her hand to her mouth to try and find something to say. Her fingers clenched and unclenched into a fist as she tried to think of a way to distract her parents, nothing coming to mind.

"It's not what you think. Danny didn't just disappear or anything like that, you're only imagining this, its a complete dream because you're worried about him. You're actually laying in bed right now asleep, and you're dreams are showing you your worst fear since Danny got hurt falling out of that tree yesterday afternoon."

She gave off a broad grin as her dad tried to figure out what she said. His mouth moved to try and understand the words that she had said, but her mom wasn't buying it.

"Very funny, Jasmine. Where is your brother?"

Jazz sighed and gave off the only answer she could.

"I don't know."

Danny looked to both sides of him, hospital staff roamed everywhere. He couldn't get out if they saw him as a patient, but he couldn't manage to rip the stupid bracelet off of his wrist or get his arm out of his sling since he had a "broken" arm. He saw a puddle of blood on the floor from where his arm was dripping and he sighed angrily as he couldn't make it stop.

A nurse walked up to him a moment later, seeing his clothes and the blood around him.

"Are you lost? Are we trying to find your room?"

She grabbed him by the arm and started to pull Danny to the elevator.

"Hey! Let go of me, lady!"

Danny strained his arm to pull away from her, feeling his ghost sense go off as the doors to the elevator closed him in with her. He looked up and saw her ghostly aura.He watched as she grabbed at his arm with her other hand as well, clutching tightly enough that the scab that had begun to form broke open.

"What are you doing to me?"

"Nothing, dear."

He felt a shock of energy pour through his arm and Danny yelped in pain as only his arm transformed to his ghost half and leaked ectoplasm in a bright shade of green.

"How... How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

She didn't even move her gaze as she filled blood bags with his ectoplasm.

"Make only my arm my ghost half. I... I've never done that before."

Danny was in enough shock by what she had done that he wasn't moving anymore. His arm continued to drip ectoplasm as he stood in the elevator. Danny heard the ticking of the elevator as it moved and felt the swaying of the tall building.

"Don't ask too many questions, I don't really know how it works. Now, this may hurt a bit."

Danny watched her with her quick movements, letting go of his arm and closing off the blood bags she had filled. Agonizing pain flooded his arm and his vision was washed over with black and red from the pain as his arm returned to the human state, his blood and ectoplasm mixing on the tiles of the elevator. He felt his head spin and fell to his knees, his whole body weak for a moment.

"What are you gonna do with my ectoplasm?"

"Consider it an involuntary donation to the hospital in the Ghost Zone."

"That's a thing?"

Danny heard the tiredness in his voice as he asked questions he didn't really want the answer to.

"It will be."

"But why me?"

"You were the closest ghost in range, even if you only are a hybrid, ectoplasm is ectoplasm."

Danny started to open his mouth with more questions, but quickly got a hand clamped over his mouth.

"Not another word."

The voice from the ghost nurse was demanding and strict. He kept his mouth shut and listened as they were taken to the floor his room was on. Dread filled Danny's heart as he realized she was really taking him back to the room with his name outside the door.

As the elevator opened Danny felt himself being dragged down the hall and around the corner to another hallway. His room was at the end of it, the door almost completely closed, but voices being heard from within.

"Please don't do this to me!"

Danny begged the nurse not to force him back into his room, but she turned her eyes toward him, flashing them a bright color of red in his direction.

"I can't do that, dear. I have to keep up my duties as a nurse, and seeing as you are at least part ghost, you're still one of my patients."

A grin appeared on her face with fangs poking out on the top of her lower lip. Danny shivered at the sight of it, thinking of how much it reminded him of Vlad's evil smile.

"Look, sweetie, you seem like a great guy, but I still have to do this to you. So don't wear yourself out."

"Easy for you to say."

Danny growled at the ghost dragging him down the hall, each step bringing him closer to a nightmare he didn't want to enter. He could hear his parents yelling at Jazz for answers. He could hear the sounds of his heart monitor screaming that he was dead. He could hear Jazz crying because she couldn't give their parents an answer. Worst of all, he could hear his own thoughts screaming at him to run away again, to never see his family again, to never tell them the truth and instead have his sister and best friends do it after he went missing.

The door began creeping towards Danny, and the ghost holding him pressed Danny in front of her to make sure she wasn't seen.

"Time to go see your folks, dear!"

Danny let out a stifled cry as she pushed him through the door, vaporizing herself as the door to his room swung open at great speed, leaving Danny stumbling through the door, colliding with the side of the hospital bed. The impact from his almost-fall sent pain up both of his arms from the point where the ghost had been clutching him tightly and since his other arm was healing from being broken. He also felt his head throb some more and a pain shoot up his side from where his parents had blasted him.

"Uhhhh... Hi...?"

Danny gave a questioning glance to the family that was standing there staring at him as the door to the room swung shut behind him. He saw his parents look at him as he stood upright, and Jazz sniffled away her tears hoping for him to give an answer to their parents' questions.

"Danny!"

Jack's booming voice made Danny's head hurt even more. He groaned and reached for his temple to see if his parents would take it as a hint of a headache. Maddie motioned for Danny to sit down, and reluctantly he sat down on the blankets piled up on the bed. Danny snatched a look at the clock, it had only been about half an hour since he tried to run from the hospital.

"Young man, just where did you go?”

His eyes flashed green in anger as he looked his mom in the eyes for the first time since they were at the hospital. Obviously, she saw his eyes change from ice blue to a toxic green and back, because she was taken aback by his eyes.

"What was that with your eyes just now?"

"What? This?"

Danny flashed his eyes again only to have his sister put her hand on his shoulder in support, and as a reminder to him.

"Danny, be careful. You don't want anyone to be hurt."

Danny pushed her away and stood up.

"Maybe I want someone to be hurt, and maybe I want it to be someone other than me for once!"

"Danny, sweetie, please we can..."

"Don't you ever call me that again."

Danny knew that his anger was coming out the wrong way and that he was a bit over the top, but at the moment he didn't really care. His parents had been hurting him for a long time and didn't know it. He wanted to give more hints to them to see if they would finally see who he was, this time he was letting his behavior from when he was in ghost mode come though. But it didn't seem to be working. Danny found all of these thoughts on hold, however, when his dad finally found a question to ask him.

"Danny, why did you leave us like that?"

The calm words came from his dad's mouth with sadness dripping from them. He really wanted the truth, and the fact that the words from him were calm almost gave Danny the creeps. He thought for a minute before giving an answer, and even with it being a harsh answer, he was going to give them the truth.

"I left... because you hate me. Because you've tried to kill me. Because... Because I hate the hospital, I hate ghost labs, I hate you when you won't listen to me... to either side of me."

His parents were easily taken aback by what he had said. They had heard the words 'I hate you' from the son that had grown up helping them with everything in the lab, around the house, and even wanted to go ghost hunting with them at one point.

"Danny, what are you talking about? We would never try to kill you."

Danny angrily stood up, blankets falling off the side of the bed with the force he used, his eyes flashing green and staying green.

"You've never tried to kill me? Do you even know who I am anymore? How many times did you think it was just a flaw in your equipment that you got ghost readings from me? That I speak ghost? That I'm missing every time the ghost boy is around and he's gone every time I'm around?"

A small laugh came from Danny's mouth as he raked his hands through his hair, pacing back and forth along the floor on the other side of the room from his parents, closer to Jazz as he let his anger, his sadness, his bottled up annoyance out.

"Did you never notice anything I do?"

He faded his neon green eyes to their usual baby blue.

"How often I lie to you, with fake excuses that make no sense as to where I'm going or what I'm doing? I told you I would give you hints instead of just saying it, so here they are again!"

Danny's voice raised as he began to give off the sight of his powers.

"Did you never notice when I could do this?"

He produced small green ghost rays sitting on the end of his fingertips, carved his initials in the wall across the room with a thin ray from his index finger.

"Did you ever even think about it when I could do this?"

Danny walked over to his parents, pushing one hand right through each of them. He walked away and walked through the bed instead of around it.

"How about this power?"

Danny made himself invisible as he wandered up behind his dad and reappeared with a flash.

"You never realized how low my temperature always was? Even as I sat there with a freezing core?"

Danny made ice crystals dance around his hand as he conjured ice and snow.

"And I'm guessing you never noticed my ability to mess with gravity either. So try noticing now!"

The anger in Danny's voice was palpable as he walked up the wall, jumped on the ceiling, and was able to stand perfectly still on the wall across where he had been walking. His parents froze in fear and surprise as Danny jumped off the wall and was able to float, to fly. His body slowly lowered itself to the ground again as he let out the last of his anger, his body starting to hurt again where his injuries were after using so much power and being mad for so long. His nerves were wearing down and he quietly sat on the bed with a scowl on his face.

"Do you understand now?"

Maddie sat there silently looking at Danny, her eyes scanning him up and down. She let out soft noises from her throat as she tried to decide what to say or how. Jack stared at the floor trying to make himself believe that he was imagining things. Jazz leaned over and kissed the back of Danny's head, gaining a smile from her little brother as he thanked her for her support. Maddie looked over at Jazz and then again at Danny.

"Jazz, you've known about this?"

"About what? Danny's powers? Of course. Why do you think I'm always protecting him?"

"You protect me a bit too much from time to time."

Danny muttered to his sister as his mom questioned the two siblings.

"So Danny has had powers all this time, and never told us?"

"Why would I tell you?!”

Danny began screaming in anger.

“You try to kill me every single time you see me!"

"We've never blasted you, we've never tried to hurt our own son!"

Jack bellowed an agreement as he finally came back to reality. Danny looked back at his clothes, seeing what he looked like.

"Oh, that's right. You never tried to kill this version of me, you tried to kill this one."

Quickly Danny sent his rings up and down his body, revealing his ghost half to his parents. Maddie looked like she was about to be sick, Jack like he was going to pass out, and Jazz sat there, proud that her little brother had the courage to do that. He looked at his parents in the eyes, his green gaze so familiar to them that it hurt.

"Do you remember trying to kill this Danny?"

Maddie fell to her knees crying, Jack patting her on the back as Danny floated towards the other side of the room. His side burned and his head throbbed. His arm ached and he was still dripping ectoplasm from where he had torn his IV out.

Jack looked the ghost boy up and down, still listening to Maddie cry as she tried to piece things together. Her mind was racing, and Danny could tell, just from how long she hadn't spoken. She probably had a million different ways to kill him, or maybe thousands of different ways to explain what was going on. But he knew that not one of them would show that he was half ghost. He knew she would never be able to accept that and would never believe it so he had to get them a way to see that it was true.

"You aren't my son!"

"Excuse me?"

All of the energy faded from Danny's voice and the tone dropped what Danny felt was six octaves.

"You aren't my son! You're that ghost that messes up people's lives with your form changing abilities! Where's my Danny? My precious, perfectly human Danny?!"

"Mom!"

Jazz tried to explain things to her mom while Danny returned to his human form.

"Mom, this is Danny. You just never knew that Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom were one and the same."

Danny nodded his head in agreement to what Jazz had said. She had always been better at explaining this type of thing to people than Danny had ever been. He gave her a small smirk as she tried to calm her parents down. Maddie looked up at Danny as he sat on the edge of the bed, ready to move at a moment's notice.

"You... You mean Phantom has been using Danny to hide himself when he's not fighting ghosts?"

Danny's mouth fell open and this time Jazz had to ask the question floating through his mind.

"Excuse me?"

"Danny Phantom has been using my son's body to stabilize his ghostly core and to keep himself alive, like a parasite?"

Danny shook his head at his mom's answer.

"Mom, I am Danny Phantom. We are one and the same, not two separate beings."

Maddie glanced upwards and saw her son staring back at her, but beneath the surface saw the ghost that had been tormenting her and her husband for so long.

"You can't be one and the same, Danny. You just can't be. I don't think I'm talking to my son, I'm pretty sure I'm talking to Danny Phantom. And that means I'm going to have to take you out of my son so I can have my family back. I'm sure you will be perfectly fine on your own without my son's body in your afterlife, Phantom."

Danny saw his mom grab the lipstick blaster from her pocket and aim it at his forehead. He heard the buzz from it as it charged and saw Jazz try to wrestle it from her. Quickly he grabbed his belongings from the room and stuffed them in the backpack Jazz had brought for him to put it in when they went home and he was healed. His phone, a change of clothes, a pair of pajamas, and his toothbrush were all flung into the backpack as fast as possible.

"I'm going ghost!"

The ghost boy floated a few inches above the floor, Jack aiming his own wrist ray at him. Danny saw Jazz stand up with the lipstick blaster in her hand, capped and turned off, now getting ready to take her father's weapon, or knowing him - weapons. Danny looked to her, and she saw that he needed her attention for just a few brief seconds.

"Jazz. Plan P."

And without another word, he went intangible and flew out the window, over the town, softly landing on the ground just outside the hospital. He looked up at the top floor of the building, trying to see which room had been his, softly whispering to himself.

"Sorry, guys."

Danny quickly sprinted down the street before taking off and flying at full speed to another part of town that was much quieter so he could think. He just needed a way to show them what he meant, not actually just tell them and hope they would believe him. What he needed was proof. Danny felt his mind wander between ideas of how he could give proof of what the truth was as he landed in a small alley and returned to his human form before walking to the front of a fairly large sized building in the middle of a busy street. He looked up at it and saw a familiar front door alongside an extremely familiar face facing the other direction on the other side of the front window.

Walking up the steps, Danny rang the doorbell to the house, hoping to get an answer quickly. His hands were shaking as he waited, hoping that nobody was looking for him. Not one person was on the street.

Slowly the door opened and Danny heard a soft voice, asking for an answer.

"Danny? Is that really you?"

Danny's head whipped around to see a pretty girl dressed in almost all black, her hair pulled away from her face and earbuds in one ear. Her eyes shone a vibrant purple and her skin was almost as pale as Danny's when he was a ghost. He smiled at the girl and stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans as he answered her question.

"Yeah. It's me, Sam."


	3. A Friend's House

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand... Chapter 3! This chapter was fun to play with a bit while typing, so I hope you enjoy reading it! I'm hopefully going to have another chapter up in the next two days, but if I don't, Happy Thanksgiving! Once again, enjoy reading!

Danny looked up as Sam looked him up and down, her face horrified at how he looked.

“Danny, oh my god… I almost didn’t realize it was you! You look horrible! Get in here. Jazz texted me that you were going to Plan P, so I was waiting for you, but didn’t think you would be so beaten up.”

Danny smirked at Sam as she ushered him into her house. The smell of flowers and citrus fruits wafted into his nose and he found himself able to smile at the familiar scent of his friend’s house.

“How bad do I look?”

Danny held his arms out to the best of his ability, the broken one not wanting to leave his side.

“You look like you were run over by a train. How many injuries?”

“Sprained ankle, four broken ribs, my arm is broken from my elbow to my wrist, dislocated right shoulder, staples in the back of my head, fifty some stitches in my right side, and I ended up ripping my IV out so my arm was gushing blood earlier.”

“Jeez.”

“Heh, yeah. Cover story was falling out of a tree. The fact that the doctor believed it was a miracle on its own. That I’m still alive is another story.”

“Things bad with the parents?”

Sam had turned her body to get tea for the two of them and was turning back around with a sterling silver tray covered in porcelain teacups and plates. She set the teapot, spoons, sugar, cream, and some cookies on the tray and gestured with her head for Danny to follow him to her room.

“You could say that.”

Danny played carefully with his words, uncertain of what to say that wouldn’t make Sam worry too much.

“I’m not sure what I’m gonna do now. My parents decided that Danny Phantom was a parasite just using my body as a host.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. My mom tried to blast me with the lipstick blaster I lent to Tuck at the hospital.”

Danny sat down on Sam’s bed as she handed him a cup of tea. He thanked her briefly as she shut the door. Her hair whipped around as she turned back to face him and sit beside him, grabbing her own tea.

“Speaking of Tuck, he’s on his way. I texted him after I got news from Jazz.”

“Oh thank god… I couldn’t go through with this without you two. I can’t believe it’s come to this.”

Danny shoves one hand through his hair as he thought about how he was going to finish his plans. Sam put a hand on his shoulder, looking him in the eyes.

“Danny, what happened at the hospital?”

“You want it in order?”

Sam rolled her eyes at Danny, a small smile spreading on her face, sarcasm dripping in her voice.

“No, I wanted it completely random. Of course I want it in order.”

Danny laughed, Sam could always cheer him up when he needed someone to make him feel better.

“Okay, okay. So I guess it started when I woke up and it was just me and Jazz in my room. Then my parents walked in and I freaked out when they started talking to me, and I made myself fall through the floor after ripping my IV out of my arm. And some weird nurse showed up and dragged me to the elevator.”

“Dragged you?”

Danny took a deep breath, remembering what happened in the elevator.

“Yeah. Physically dragged me. My ghost sense went off and when I looked at her she had an aura around her body, so I knew it was her and I freaked out some more. And she made it so that only my arm transformed to my ghost half.”

“Only your arm?”

“Yeah. It had my black sleeve and white glove, it was about halfway up my bicep when it turned to my human half. I… I don’t know how she did it. I was in so much awe that I didn’t know what she was doing.”

“But do you know what she did?”

“Yeah… yeah, I know what she did. She ended up breaking the scab that was forming on my arm from my IV, and so it was almost gushing ectoplasm. But she collected it in blood bags and told me that it was for the hospital in the Ghost Zone. That I was the closest ghost she could find and made it an involuntary donation.”

“There’s a hospital in the Ghost Zone?”

“I asked the same question. She said that there would be, but didn’t say anything else.”

“Weird.”

“Mmmhmmm. So then she turned my arm back to my human side and it drained some of my energy so I got really tired. But then the elevator opened and she dragged me to my room and pushed me in the door. And then she was gone. She just… vanished. And I almost fell, right into the middle of my family while they were arguing… about me.”

“Of course they were arguing about you. My parents would do the same thing if I just vanished through the floor.”

“Oh haha. Very funny, Sam.”

Danny leaned his body up against the headboard of Sam’s bed, attempting to cross his arms with a smirk across his face. She laughed a bit as he couldn’t find a way to move his arms without spilling tea down his shirt. A scowl was given to her from across the bed, but it quickly faded as Danny laughed along with her.

“Anyway,”

Sam looked down into her cup of tea trying to think of what to say to Danny.

“How did things go once you were back in the hospital room?”

A long, pained sigh escaped from Danny’s lips as he once again ran his hand over the top of his head, trying to rake out the mess of black hair that he couldn’t keep neat.

“Not so great.”

He took a long sip of tea as he thought about how to put it. Danny began to swallow as the door to Sam’s room creaked open slowly, causing him to have a spit take instead, as Tucker walked into the room. He slowly lowered himself to the floor to sit and whispered to his friends.

“Danny, you chose to go through with Plan P?”

“I didn’t have a choice. I mean, I had a choice, but I felt like I had to do this.”

Tucker shook his head in understanding.

“So what have you guys been talking about?”

He swung his head from Danny to Sam, waiting for one of them to give him an answer. Danny and Sam exchanged glances and Danny sighed once again.

“I was telling Sam about what happened at the hospital. You only just missed the beginning. I had just gotten to where I was about to talk to my family.”

“Whoa whoa whoa… there was a part in between there?”

“Yeah. Here, it went something like this.”

Danny began telling the story of the ghost nurse to Tucker and his eyes grew larger with each word as Danny told the tale of falling through the floor and being forced to donate ectoplasm, finally landing in the hospital room in the middle of his parents’ argument.

“Sheesh, dude. Sorry that happened. But you said that it wasn’t so great then with your parents in the room? I heard just a bit as I was walking in.”

“Yeah. Things with my parents didn’t sit very well. I ended up with my family saying that they were more curious as to where I went than that they were happy I was okay. Then I got into a rant about how I wasn’t going to tell my parents, they should have figured my secret out from the hints I had been dropping to them, which I have been doing for a while now. Cause, I… I can’t just go on in life anymore like this. What happens when I’m older? When I have kids to protect as well?”

Sam patted Danny on the back, and Tucker tried to calm him down with a few words here and there, but he took a deep breath and continued on.

“I ended up yelling at Jazz for no reason, then yelling at my parents, claiming that I hated them when they wouldn’t listen to me. Then when they said they didn’t hate me, I showed them all of my powers, right before their eyes, the only thing I didn’t do was go ghost at first. They saw me use my powers while I was human.”

Danny looked at his friends who gave a sort of worried look to each other before urging him to continue on. He took a cookie and slowly bit out of it to try and find how to put the next part of his story. It was hard on him to try and give answers to a story that had only just traumatized him that day.

"So then when they still didn't believe anything, I did go ghost. I stood as Danny Phantom in front of them and then changed myself back. But the worst part was how my mom decided that I wasn't half-ghost, Danny Phantom is just using my body as a host, she said that he was 'like a parasite' and that it was time he left my body for good. I told them that... that we were..."

Tears filled Danny's eyes as he tried to continue on with his story, but his voice got caught in his throat, his friends looking at him with worried faces as they tried to calm him down and it wasn't working. Danny's body was still shaking as he tried to hold back tears, his voice refusing to leave his throat as he tried to tell his friends he was okay and could finish the story.

"Guys, I... I'm fine. I'm fine."

He looked over at his friends and wiped the tears from his eyes, trying to just tell what happened as a story and not think about his parents, to pretend that it had never really happened. He cleared his throat and asked for some water. Sam threw him a bottle from the minifridge in her room and without even thinking Danny was able to catch it. He took a long drink, pulling the bottle from his mouth and noticing that over half of it was gone.

"Okay, so where did I stop..."

Danny began thinking out loud without realizing it. His mind spun as he recalled where he had broken down while telling his friends what had happened at the hospital.

"Right, so I was told that Danny Phantom was basically just a parasite and that he needed to leave my body, and that's when I told my parents that we were one and the same, that we couldn't be separated, but they didn't believe me. And my mom was crying, my dad, for once, didn't have anything to say."

Danny looked down at his hands. Thoughts flooded his mind and he contemplated telling his friends about them. His mind finally told him that it would be the right thing to do seeing as they were his best friends and deserved to know everything. He had never kept secrets from them before, and he wasn't going to start now.

"Just looking at my mom, I knew she had tons of thoughts in her mind about how we were 'one and the same' as Jazz and I put it, but not one of them was that I was half ghost. I swear, at the time I thought that the vast majority of them were ways she could kill me."

Tucker gave him a nervous look and Sam bit at her nails as she asked him to continue.

"What happened after you saw your parents' reaction?"

Danny ran a hand over his broken arm, feeling how it was sore yet still almost healed thanks to his ghost half. The worst part was his dislocated shoulder still being sore after the doctor relocated it.

"My mom screamed that I wasn't her son, and just like that,"

Danny snapped his fingers.

"She had pulled the lipstick blaster I lent to Tucker at the creepy hospital that Spectra used, and was trying to blast me with it. I could hear it charging and Jazz wrestled her to the ground, which I found impressive for how often Jazz hates violence. But then, of course, my dad had a wrist ray aimed at me as Jazz got the blaster from my mom, so I decided to run. I grabbed the backpack Jazz had brought for me, most likely for when we went home, I grabbed all my stuff and threw it in there as fast as I could, and..."

"Danny, what happened?"

Tucker asked Danny what happened as Danny sighed and swallowed nervously.

"I made sure Jazz had eye contact with me as she wrestled the wrist ray away from my dad, which, knowing him he probably had more than one, and I just said, 'Jazz. Plan P.' and she nodded back at me to let me know that she knew the plan, and I went ghost and flew out the window. Then I ran."

He gave off an annoyed smile and spread his arm to the side as he angrily finished his story.

"And now, here we are."

His fake smile quickly faded as he remembered what Plan P meant. They had been saving this plan for the time when Danny chose to tell his parents about his ghost half, but it was kind of like a Plan B, if things didn't go right, this was what it was for. Unfortunately, it was time to use it. They had called it Plan P as a short version of "Plan Phantom" and it was meant that if Danny was not accepted by his parents the first time he told them, it would then be from Sam's house, via text on one of his best friends' phones. They figured he could do it much easier that way since he wouldn't be in any danger, and he would be able to think about what he said before he sent the texts.

Danny looked up at his friends, his eyes flashing between the two of them.

"So who's phone am I going to use?"

Sam and Tucker both pulled their phones out in sync, both saying, "You can use mine," at the exact same time, leaving all three of them to laugh at the small chances that they would be in perfect timing with one another. Sam and Tucker were almost never on the same page, more often than not arguing over their differences while Danny was always a way to keep them from going into an all-out war. He was always their mediator and when Danny was there, there was never a fight. Unless they were fighting ghosts, but that's just what you did when your best friend was part ghost.

Quietly Danny picked up Tucker's phone and looked at his friends.

"I should probably use Tucker's cell. I'm already staying at your house, Sam. I don't want to be a burden to either of you."

"Danny, it's alright. I wouldn't have cared if you used my phone and stayed at my house."

"Yeah, dude. We're here to support you and help in any way we can."

"Thanks, guys."

Tucker nodded and Sam gave off a small, "mmhmm" with a quick smile.

"We know you don't like depending on others."

Tucker looked at his friend and rolled his eyes. His glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose.

"After all, the ghost boy is independent and only helps others. He doesn't need help."

His voice sounded like a TV announcer for a sports game, or a news reporter, which made Danny smile.

"You know that just because I'm the ghost boy isn't what makes me hate needing other people's help. I've been like this since I was little. Remember when we were in elementary school?"

Sam laughed for a moment as Tucker grabbed a cookie.

"I offered to help you study for the spelling test when you couldn't spell half the words correctly and you told me that you were fine and could get them on your own. You only got half of them right the day of the test."

"Exactly. I hate being a bother to other people. I just feel like I get in their way."

"Dude, you'll never get in our way."

Tucker grabbed another cookie as Danny rolled his eyes at his friend. Sam took the phone from Danny's hand and made sure he knew what he was getting into.

"Danny, do you know what you're going to text your parents?"

"No. Not really. I mean... I... What if this doesn't work?"

He looked up at the ceiling, blowing his hair away from his face and trying to think of what to say to his family, well, except Jazz. But if things didn't go right he would have to think of something to tell her too, in case he didn't really see her anymore. In case it got so bad that he never saw her again. He looked over to see Tucker give Sam a nervous glance and Sam quietly pushing the water bottle into his hand.

"Here, drink some water. It ought to help with your nerves a bit. And... If something goes wrong, we'll figure it out. Together. We're going to be here to help you every step of the way. I'm sure Jazz will too."

She gave off a small half smile. Danny looked back down at his hand and unscrewed the lid to the water bottle, taking a long drink and emptying the thin plastic bottle.

"Thanks, guys. So,"

He grabbed the phone back from Sam.

"What do I say?"

The three friends all sat in silence for a minute, looking everywhere but at each other. Nothing moved but their chests, and occasionally their heads to a new position. Danny took a deep breath.

"I guess I should start by typing their phone number into the 'To' slot?"

Tucker nodded as he continued to think about what Danny should say. Danny quietly typed in his parents' cell numbers into the phone, first his mom's, then his dad's - making it a group chat. He looked back up from the phone.

"Should I just start by asking if it's them? Like, make sure it's really their numbers?"

Sam nodded her head at him and he looked back down at the phone. His fingers froze with his nerves.

"But what if they don't answer? What if they..."

Sam slapped Danny across the face cutting him off.

"It doesn't matter right now. Just text them."

Her eyes pleaded with him as Danny sat there. She looked just as nervous as he felt. Tucker was the same way. He picked the phone up off of his lap and began to type.

"Okay, okay. I'm typing. Jeez, why did you have to smack me so hard?"

Danny rubbed at his face with one hand while he typed with the other. He never got an answer from Sam.

"Alright, I'm getting ready to send the text. You guys should come and sit by my sides so you can read the texts too as things happen. I'm probably not gonna know what to say."

Sam and Tucker climbed up beside Danny, Sam sliding over to his side and Tucker climbing over to his other side on the bed. Danny had to slide over to the middle of Sam's bed to make room for Tucker to sit. As his friends settled down he sent the text.

D: Mom? Dad? It's Danny.

"And now we wait."

Sam whispered nervously as they sat and waited for a response to the text. What felt like hours went by as the friends sat in complete silence, staring at the screen of Tucker's phone. After about seven minutes a text came through and all three friends jumped at the sound of the text tone.

"That felt like forever."

Was all Danny could breathe out as he went to unlock Tuck's phone and read, and hopefully respond to, the text.

M: Danny? Is that really you? Where are you? What's going on?

D: Mom, I'm fine. I... I can't be around you guys right now, but we can still talk like this.

J: Why can't you be around us right now?

D: You tried to blast me while I was still at the hospital! How do you think I'm gonna react to that kind of thing?!

J: You weren't at the hospital. It was that Danny Phantom punk.

M: Sweetie, where have you been since yesterday? We haven't seen you since we were at the rental house.

D: You guys don't get it...

M: Don't get what?

J: Danny, explain.

D: I... I am Danny Phantom. AND Danny Fenton.

J: I don't understand.

M: What do you mean?

Danny looked to his friends to see if they were thinking what he was. Sam nodded at him and Tucker gave him a thumbs up, both signaling Danny to keep typing. He looked back down to the phone, taking a deep breath and letting his fingers do the talking.

D: Mom, Dad, I'm half ghost. Danny Phantom isn't just a ghost, and Danny Fenton isn't just a boy. I'm what everyone in the Ghost Zone calls a Halfa - half ghost, half human.

J: That's not possible.

M: Are you sure this is our son Danny? This isn't some trick from that other ghost?

D: No, it's me. It's still your Danny. I'm just trying to tell you the truth.

M: Danny, humans can't have ghost powers.

M: Everybody knows that.

D: Then what did I show you in the hospital room.

J: You're playing tricks on us.

D: I... I'm not playing tricks on anyone. I'm half ghost! You saw me change from my human state to my ghost state!

D: Why won't you believe me?!

M: There's no way that was real.

M: You couldn't have just become half ghost.

D: Except I did.

J: How?

D: You didn't expect your portal to just start working after you left it alone for a few days, did you?

J: The portal? That's... what are you saying?

D: I'm saying I'm half ghost because of an accident with your portal! Listen to me for a minute.

D: Sam, Tucker, and I were all in the lab looking at the portal while you guys weren't home. I made a risky, and slightly stupid, decision to walk into the portal. I just put on one of the jumpsuits that you guys hand there, and walked inside. Putting my hand on the way of the portal I hit the "ON" button and the portal started.

D: I was caught in the middle of it, and my DNA was combined with ghost DNA. It was not a fun experience. It was agonizingly painful and I got knocked out for a while. Technically, I died. When I woke up, I had ghost powers and could change from ghost to human forms, and I was half ghost.

M: Danny, that... Why didn't you say anything?

D: You guys are ghost hunters!

J: We're also your parents.

D: What, did you want this to happen? I was terrified. You always talked about destroying ghosts, dissecting ghosts, capturing ghosts to experiment on. Would you have said something?

Minutes dragged on after Danny sent the last text. Sam and Tucker looked over at him. He was almost in tears, his face growing red as he tried to hold them back. His hands were shaking and Tucker pulled the phone from his hand. Sam brushed back his hair as he leaned against the headboard.

"It's over now. You told them. They know you're half ghost, how it happened, and now the only thing you can do is wait and see what happens."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

Danny looked at the clock ticking on Sam's wall. It was too dark for him to see what time it was, but he stared at the clock anyway, the ticking of the second hand calming his nerves as he waited for a response from his parents or to get a text from Jazz. Finally, he couldn't wait any longer and he was itching to do something. He pulled his own phone from his backpack and dialed Jazz's cell number, pressing call he listened to it ring. Danny was almost ready to give up when he heard Jazz answer.

"Hello?"

"Jazz! Oh, I've never been so happy to hear your voice!"

"Danny! Oh thank god, you're okay. Mom and Dad don't seem too pleased with what just happened with the texts."

"What's going on? Where are you guys?"

"Still at the hospital. I'm guessing you made it to Sam's without any ghost trouble?"

"Yeah. What are Mom and Dad doing?"

"Right now? It looks like they're going ghost hunting. I heard them say something about how it wasn't you texting them and that Danny Phantom was holding you captive right now."

"Seriously? They still don't believe me?"

"From what I've seen, no. Mom said something about trying to catch Phantom, rescue you, and then see what it is about Phantom that makes it so that you guys say you need each other."

"Maybe because we're the same person. Can they not just accept that?"

"It's denial. Keep a low profile for a while and it should blow over. They have to accept it eventually. Otherwise, they won't see their son again."

"You're telling me. I never should have gotten myself into this mess."

"It's not your fault. You had said you were going to tell them eventually from the very beginning. You just couldn't hold it in anymore. It's okay, Danny."

"Jazz, I didn't want things to be like... like this! I've made a mess of our family. Mom and Dad are hunting me, I'm running away from you guys and trying to hide, and you're just trying to keep everyone calm and keep it from getting worse. You're supposed to be looking for colleges, Mom and Dad are supposed to be clueless to my ghost half, and I'm supposed to be doing what I find normal."

"Danny, you can't really be..."

"Jazz, I can't not blame myself for this. I chose to tell them from the start, and I shouldn't have. I've messed with too many peoples' lives now, and I hate myself for that."

Danny paused to look at his friends. They urged him to continue talking to Jazz.

"I just can't believe that our parents are still going to come after Danny Phantom."

"It's gonna be okay. Just don't go ghost for a while and I'll try to talk them out of it."

Danny heard a ding from Tucker's phone. Tucker and Sam looked at the screen and motioned for Danny to come look at it.

"Hold on one moment Jazz, I think Mom and Dad just texted me back on Tucker's phone."

"Sure."

Danny set his phone down and looked over at Tucker's screen.

M: Don't worry, Danny. We're on our way to come save you from Phantom.

J: We'll get you home from wherever that punk is keeping you captive, don't you worry!

M: And once you're safe we'll make sure Phantom doesn't come near you again. That ghost won't have to depend on anyone ever again.

Danny watched as his parents left the chat at the same time. He picked his phone back up swallowing hard.

"Jazz?"

"What? Danny, is something wrong?"

"Mom and Dad said that they're going to come and save me from Phantom and that he's not going to have to depend on anyone ever again. Are they going to try and kill Phantom?"

Jazz didn't respond for a moment. Danny heard her breathing on the other end of the call and felt his voice crack as he tried to get an answer from her.

"Jazz?"

He heard a small thud as Jazz dropped her phone. From across the room he heard Jazz's voice yelling to their parents.

"You can't go! Don't you get it? Danny Fenton IS Danny Phantom! You destroy Phantom and you destroy your son!"

His Dad's booming voice answered Jazz as it sounded like she was trying to drag him back into the room by his arm.

"Jazz, I don't know what kind of brainwashing he used on you, but we aren't going to hurt your brother. We're just going to save him, get rid of Phantom, and hopefully that will fix the brainwashing that you're under."

"Dad, I'm not brainwashed! I'm telling you the truth! This is serious! You're going to hurt and/or kill Danny!"

"Danny Phantom, dear. You have nothing to worry about."

His mom sounded calm and her voice was trying to get Jazz to stop trying to make them stay and believe Danny. He heard an angry huff as his sister sat back down and picked her phone up off the floor.

"Jazz, what was that?"

"Mom and Dad are crazy. Danny, you need a better place to hide. I'm sure that they're going to talk to everyone who knows you to try and find the last place they saw you, and the last time you were seen. They won't listen to anyone about what the truth is. Now I know why you and I are so stubborn."

"Funny, Jazz. You're not as stubborn as me."

"Am too!"

"Yeah, yeah yeah yeah. whatever. I don't have time to argue with you. But seriously, where am I supposed to hide?"

Danny thought for a minute as he heard Jazz try and convince him to go stay with Vlad since mom would never go talk to Vlad, especially about Danny.

"Anyone is welcome to give me an answer!"

Danny called over to his friends while they sat on the floor charging Tucker's phone and eating cookies while Danny talked to Jazz.

Sam looked to Tucker, who didn't give an answer but a shrug. Quietly Sam looked up to Danny. It looked like she had an idea of where Danny could go. He moved his hand to let her know that she could tell him, he would listen to any idea right now except staying with Vlad. He put Jazz on speaker phone and asked Sam what her idea was.

"Sam, if you have an answer, I'm very willing to listen right now. Especially since I'm running out of time with my parents on their way!"

His voice cracked in panic as he thought about where they could be right now.

"Why don't you hang out in the Ghost Zone? I mean, you know plenty of ghosts you could stay with. Visit Dora, Frostbite, Clockwork, or even go see if Cujo wants to play for a while."

Danny thought for a minute. He looked at his phone and then back to Sam.

"That actually sounds like a great idea. It would keep me out of trouble, and my parents would never even DARE to go into the Ghost Zone, whether they were looking for a specific ghost or not. They think it's too dangerous for any human to go there."

"That's not a bad idea, Sam. Do you want us to go with you?"

Danny listened to his sister's voice, which he found to sound a bit funny on speaker phone, and thought about if he should take anyone with him to the Ghost Zone. Maybe it would be like a field trip. They weren't in school and were always doing things like this anyways, so why not. He knew it would be one of Jazz's first trips to the Ghost Zone and thought that he should give her the full tour.

"Sure. Anyone who wants to come with me can. Who wants a long-term field trip to the opposite side of our world?"

All three of the other 'Team Phantom' members chorused a strong, "Me!" and Danny smiled. At least he wouldn't be alone. He questioned what to bring with him and then gave each one of them a list of what to pack before they met him in his parent's lab by the portal in an hour.

"Everyone grab a few changes of clothes, a really warm winter coat, your phone, chargers, whatever snacks you want, anything you need to pass time away, a couple of ectoblasters, a Fenton Thermos, and most likely a first aid kit. I'll see you at my place in the lab in an hour. You can use any excuse you want as to where you'll be going, but make it the same. Something about a road trip with Jazz. It'll be fun, but we don't need my parents thinking that you got taken by ghosts too. I'll see you then."

He took his phone off of speaker phone and pulled it to his ear.

"Jazz, are you sure you want to come instead of trying to make things better with Mom and Dad?"

"I'm sure. Oh, and Danny? Be careful."

"I'll do my best. I'll see you in an hour."

They both hung up and Danny looked to his friends, Tucker was grabbing his phone and rushing back to his house to pack and Sam had grabbed a suitcase from her closet. She was putting everything she needed in it except for her phone, which went into a pocket on her spider backpack. She looked up at him and smiled.

"Everything is going to be okay, Danny. We're all here for you, and you know we won't let anything happen to you."

"I know. I just can't help feeling like this is running away."

Sam looked back at her belongings for a minute before she looked back to Danny and answered him.

"In a way, it is running away. But it's only temporary. We're going to come back eventually."

"Sooner, rather than later."

Danny took a deep breath and looked to the stuff that was in his backpack.

"I'm already packed. Want me to walk you over to my house when you're done? I'm just gonna charge my phone while I wait."

"Sure. I'll probably be able to keep you hidden a bit better."

"Or I could just walk there invisible."

Sam looked over her belongings, and then at her watch. Her face gave a look of surprise.

"Or run! We're gonna be late!"

Danny helped her close her backpack and before he knew what he was doing he took Sam and her things and made them invisible, flying them to his house. He landed softly on the front steps and quickly phased them through the front door and then to the basement where Jazz and Tucker were standing and loading their own belongings into the Specter Speeder. Jazz ran over to Danny gave him a hug as Sam picked her suitcase up and shoved it between Jazz's bags and Tucker's box of technology.

"I'm so happy you're okay! I thought Mom and Dad had found you for a minute when you weren't getting here."

"Nope. We were invisible and somehow still here on time after we left late. But yeah."

He looked around to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything. Not seeing the rest of his stuff, he ran up to his room and grabbed it, quickly phasing through the floors until he was standing in the lab with a few more changes of clothes and some stuff to do while they sat around. Comic books, hand held games, a few model rockets, and his ghost hunting gear. He grabbed a first aid kit from the shelf and packed it into the front console of the vehicle. Looking over at his friends he smiled.

"Everyone ready to go?"

Tucker pumped a fist into the air and jumped up, Sam let out a strong, "You betcha." and Jazz nodded her head in excitement. Quickly Danny changed to his ghost half and they all jumped into the ship, starting it and pressing the button to open the ghost portal.

"Hope you're excited, Jazz. I'm gonna give you the full Ghost Zone tour, and you get the specialty tour. Your tour guide is a ghost."

Jazz giggled as Danny gave off a cheesy grin for being a tour guide before he quickly pressed the gas pedal and launched them into the Ghost Zone. Green blobs appeared around them and purple doors surrounded their view. A quiet gasp came from behind Danny as Jazz looked around and couldn't believe her eyes.

"Welcome to the Ghost Zone, Jazz."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Heheheheheh. Not like me to put a note at the end, I know. But I hope you enjoyed the chapter. The texts weren't exactly easy to write and in case you didn't catch it, "D:" was Danny texting, "M:" was Maddie texting, and "J:" was for Jack texting. I feel like this could have had a better ending, but the story isn't over, so I've got places I could go with this. I am working on other stories at the same time, so I'm always looking for ideas and requests if anybody has any. You can also give ideas for how I can make my writing better and more enjoyable to read. See you in the next chapter!


	4. The Ghost Zone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter was so hard to write, so I'm really sorry if it's a bit shorter than the others. I didn't really know how I was going to do a lot of these scenes, but here this is! I'm most likely going to have two more chapters after this, so the ending isn't here quite yet. I should have it up in a few days, however. Anyways, Enjoy the chapter, and hopefully the rest of the story, and Happy Thanksgiving!

"I can't believe it. This place is amazing! You come here all the time to get rid of ghosts?"

"Yeah, but I generally come to visit some of the ghosts that I'm friends with."

Sam motioned for Jazz to look as a few ghosts flew past them. They were just talking to each other and looked to be having a good time. Tucker pointed for her to see Skulker's Island and the Ghost King's lair. Danny motioned to the Far Frozen and Dora’s castle.

“Those are places we may be staying depending on if they welcome us with a place to stay.”

He looked at the controls, his mouth falling silent as he watched himself steer naturally, knowing the terrain well enough that he didn’t need to look around to know where to turn. His body flinched as Jazz put a hand on his good shoulder.

“Wanna give me my ghost tour?”

She laughed a bit and smiled as Danny looked up at her. He turned back to looking through the windshield.

“Sure. Where do you want to start?”

Danny offered her several places they could begin their tour as they flew around the same general area for a few minutes.

“Danny, I don’t care where we start, so long as you show me all of it.”

“Alright, but you’re gonna want to hold on. And maybe have a notepad to take some ghost notes, they’ll come in handy eventually.”

He winked at his sister as he pumped the gas pedal, his body being forced back into the seat. He swerved to the side quickly as his sister watched the places that flew by in awe. They visited Skulker’s Island, Dora’s Castle, The Ghost King and Fright Knight’s lair, the Far Frozen. Ember’s shelf, Youngblood’s Imaginary Castle, Technus’s door, Walker’s Prison, the Lunch Lady’s Restaurant, the Box Ghost’s Warehouse, Nocturne’s Lair, saw Dani flying by while playing fetch with Cujo and ended up seeing a new building that Danny had never seen before. As they passed it a thought crossed Danny’s mind.

‘Maybe that’s the new ghost hospital that nurse was talking about.’

He shook the thought away and looked back over at his sister, it had been hours since she said a word while Danny showed her around the place he considered his second home. The last place he flew by was Vlad’s portal.

“Never go in there unless you want trouble. It’s Plasmius’s portal, and he’s not exactly fond of visitors. Especially if they’re part of Team Phantom.”

He gave the portal a glare and then raced off, back to the Far Frozen where Frostbite was waiting for him and his friends.

“Welcome, Danny!”

“Hey, Frostbite! How are all of you guys doing?”

“Much better since you injured quite a few people with your newfound ice powers. We were worried about you when a ghost came by saying that you gave ectoplasm for a new ghost hospital if we ever needed to go to the hospital.”

“Heh, yeah… Sorry about that. I’ve gotten more control over the power now so you don’t have to worry about that happening again. But she came by here too? I didn’t donate my ectoplasm, she stole it.”

Jazz gave the two ghosts a funny look as they continued to share what they knew about the ghost nurse.

“Danny, what are you talking about?”

“That’s how I ended up back in the room at the hospital. She saw me on the first floor and dragged, yes dragged, me into the elevator, and then proceeded to steal my ectoplasm while we were moving to the top floor and then she shoved me in the room and vanished.”

Frostbite looked over to his friends, recognizing Sam and Tucker, questioning about Jazz.

“Who is the girl who is asking about the ghost nurse?”

“Oh, Jazz? She’s my sister. She figured my ghost half out a lot faster than I thought she would. So, this is all of Team Phantom.”

A stern nod from Frostbite was given, as he declared that all of Danny’s team was always welcome in their home, motioning to his people. The team all thanked him graciously and said they needed a place to stay for a few days until Danny’s family calmed down about him being part ghost. Danny rambled about how his family was acting after he tried to reveal his secret to them, and Sam had to calm him down when he wouldn’t let his anger stop.

“Danny, cool it. We’re all safe now, you’re going to be fine. Frostbite is here and will let you stay with him for as long as you need. It’s okay.”

Danny ran a hand through the hair on the side of his head, breathing deeply and almost wanting to scream. He saw a couple of ghosts fly overhead, ectoplasm leaking from their wounds, landing in the snow at Danny’s feet. Without thinking he flew upwards at sonic speeds to catch up with the two bleeding spectral beings.

“Where did you guys get those wounds?”

An eerie voice escaped from the lips of one of them, anger flaring in his eyes.

“Your parents shot us after we said we hadn’t seen you. They said we were useless and attempted to kill us as we flew off. I don’t think any ghosts will be going to Amity Park for a long time.”

They began flying off again, in the same general direction as several other ghosts. Danny called out to them again.

“Where are all of you going?”

“The ghost hospital.”

An older female voice slipped from the other ghost that he had flown after, her pain seeping into her voice.

“Where else would we go to try and treat our injuries after being blasted with something other than a ghost’s natural powers?”

The couple turned and flew off, following the ghosts that were already waiting for treatment, the line for check-in leaking out the door. Danny felt his heart stop as he saw a pair of bright red eyes staring him down. He knew that face, it was the nurse that had stolen his ectoplasm from him. He pulled his sleeve up and saw a scar where there had once been a scab and then looked back up, but the ghost nurse was gone. Danny flew himself back to where his friends and Frostbite were in silence, his mind not even capable of putting thoughts together. His boots landed softly in the snow, his eyes wide in fear.

“Danny?” What’s wrong?”

Jazz put a hand on his shoulder as she tried to calm her brother down, the worry from his eyes seeming to spread to everyone standing around him. She felt her heart race and saw Sam’s eyebrows sink farther down her face, giving her a look of fear, while Tucker quietly muttered to himself to try and calm down. Even Frostbite looked afraid.

“The… the ghost… the nurse was… and she… but then…”

Danny couldn’t manage to put a sentence together. His thoughts were empty, his body trembling as he stood and looked at his friends. Each one of them looked upset or worried about him. He tried to shake his head but instead, his body collapsed into the snow, paralyzed in fear.

“Danny!”

Sam, Tucker, and Jazz all fell to their knees, ignoring the cold sting of the snow as Danny kept muttering nonsense to himself, mainly being about what he had just seen. The nurse, the hospital, the ghosts going for “treatment”, the way he had seen the glowing red eyes. His mumbling only got louder until his body was shaking and on the edge of screaming. His friends watched as he continued to shake, unable to help him in any way. Frostbite called for the doctor of his people to come forward.

The trio of kids around Danny’s body moved away for a moment, their hands all clasped up against their chests in hopes that they could do something for the ghost they called their friend. The doctor looked him over, performing small tests on him to see what needed to be done, but slowly stood up, shaking his head in defeat.

“There’s nothing I can do until the spell he was put under is broken.”

“Spell?”

Frostbite looked at the doctor and questioned him farther.

“What kind of spell?”

The doctor of the Far Frozen shrugged his shoulders as he began putting his tools away and walked back to the group of ghosts standing just behind their leader. He stood silently as Frostbite thought about what to do. The doctor tapped him on the shoulder, his mind going to a new place.

“What if you took him to the new hospital that just opened a few hours ago?”

Frostbite looked behind him to see who said that and nodded before looking over to Danny’s friends, their bodies shivering from their cold wet clothes after kneeling in the snow.

“What do you kids think?”

Tucker and Jazz exchanged nervous glances before Sam looked at both of them with worry about the ghost nurse that Danny was muttering about.

“It’s our only chance.”

Tucker picked Danny up in his arms, the ghost boy being light and frail as his body trembled and muttered under his breath. All four of the visitors climbed into the specter speeder, alongside Frostbit who told his people to be on their best behavior while he was gone. They all saluted him as he closed the back doors and Sam made the ship roar to life on their way to the hospital.

As they got closer to the building of the hospital Danny’s symptoms worsened. His body shook harder and more frequently, his muttering became louder, his body began to sweat, and his voice began to crack at random points even with his voice being medium-low in his range.

“Sam, drive faster!”

Tucker called out to Sam, none of them knowing why the symptoms of the ‘spell’ Danny was under were getting more severe. She took a quick look back and swore under her breath as she pressed harder on the gas pedal.

Danny’s mind was clouded as he listened to the voices of his friends and sister around him. He felt his body shaking and wondered if he was just cold, but was overcome with fear as he realized he couldn’t move his body and was muttering nonsense at all times. He tried to lift his hand but it only moved a few inches before his arm gave out and was once again unable to move. The last thing he heard before his mind turned to a clouded mess was Sam swearing and pressing harder on the gas pedal.

The hospital was just a few hundred more feet, but Sam didn’t slow the specter speeder down knowing that human could pass right through the walls. As she slammed through the walls Danny’s body quit shaking and instead had his back arch as he screamed in what sounded like pain. His voice didn’t falter and he never ran out of breath. It was a long, steady scream loud enough to make the ears bleed.

Frostbite grabbed Danny from the floor of the ship they arrived in and demanded a room for him. Quietly, a nurse slipped around the corner and took him from Frostbite, silently checking him into a room. As the nurse touched him his screaming grew louder still and his back arched so far it looked like his body would snap in half if he was in his human form. An unnatural green glow lit his body up like a Christmas tree and his friends all looked at the nurse, her eyes a glowing red and her mouth glittering as her fangs showed.

Danny felt the same energy he felt in the elevator when the ghost nurse had turned only his arm to his ghost half when he felt himself be picked up from what he was almost certain were Frostbite’s warm, fuzzy arms and transferred to a pair of skinny, slick arms that he didn’t recognize the feel of. He was barely able to open his eyes but saw the ghost nurse from the hospital in Amity Park and screamed even more against his will. The one thing he was able to squeeze out of his throat was screaming,

“That’s the ghost nurse!”

Before he could see if his friends caught what he said Danny found his vision fall to blackness and the pain radiating from his midsection increased, his body beginning to shake. Before he knew what was happening he found himself in a world of nothingness.

Frostbite didn’t seem very keen on letting Danny out of his arms, but they all quickly followed after the skinny nurse holding Danny as Jazz listened to him scream. She caught a quick set of words leaving his mouth and took a deep breath, pulling his friends to her sides so she could tell them what she heard.

“Did you guys hear what Danny said?”

Sam and Tucker both nodded at her, Frostbite still following after Danny at a rapid pace, ignoring Jazz’s request for him to listen.

“He said that this was the ghost nurse that he saw at the hospital in Amity Park. Why do you think he didn’t like her so much?”

Tucker gave off a sarcastic snort.

“Besides the fact that she stole his ectoplasm against his will? Who knows.”

He looked to his feet before watching Danny be given a room at the end of a long hallway they had been running down for a long couple of minutes. Jazz watched the nurse set him down and saw the green glow fade from his body and heard his screaming lessen as she was no longer touching him.

“Did you see that?”

Sam beat Jazz to her question, all three of them staring in awe, Frostbite arguing with the nurse. Tucker quickly rushed up to him and explained what just happened and the ghostly friend walked over to Sam and Jazz.

“Are you telling me it got worse when she touched him, and better when she put him down?”

“Yeah.”

Sam let out an excited breath as Jazz put an idea on the table.

“What if she’s the one that put Danny under a spell? If she’s what’s controlling his body right now?”

“That would make sense. After all, the closer he got to her the worse his body reacted.”

Tucker looked over at his friend and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Sam nodded slowly as Jazz put her hand to the side of her face in thought. There had to be a way to fix this.

Frostbite went to the nurse and pulled her into the hall, Danny’s body slowly relaxing back to shaking and muttering under his breath as the nurse got farther away. Sam and Jazz studied the nurse as she walked off, refusing to let her image leave their mind so they could keep her away from Danny. They watched her unnaturally skinny waist walk away with her red dress under a lab coat, bright red heels accompanying the dress. Her long, black hair fell down to her hips, and her glowing red eyes sent chills down anyone’s spine. Fangs appeared on her lower lip as she smiled and looked back at Danny. The only thing that was missing was a name for the evil nurse.

“Keep an eye on him while I go look for another nurse.”

Sam hissed to Jazz as she snuck out of the room, leaving Jazz and Tucker to keep Danny safe. Tucker watched the door while Jazz tried to soothe her brother that was laying on top of the sheets that covered the bed, draping to almost less than an inch above the floor. She brushed his hair from his face as his face continued to drip sweat from his forehead.

Sam slipped out the door, knowing it was probably a bad idea to leave Tucker alone in a hospital, but more worried about what would happen to Danny if they couldn’t get rid of the ‘spell’ he was under, most likely from the nurse he had met in Amity Park. She also had no idea what was going to happen with his parents and felt worried about Danny's health and safety

Sam stood up straight once she was out of eyesight from the nurse they were avoiding, and quietly wandered the halls looking for a different nurse or a doctor to see if one of them could figure out what was wrong with her friend. Taking a deep breath she turned a corner and saw a couple of nurses standing around talking to a doctor who was looking through another patient’s files. She ran up to them and began talking in a hurry, so fast that none of the staff understood her and she had to restate what she had said, which Sam hated doing.

“I’m here with the ghost boy, his body is going through what looks like seizures and spasm and he can't move his own body or talk or stop screaming. One of the doctors from the Far Frozen said he was under a spell and had no way to fix it or any clue where it came from, but then we got here and it got worse and some nurse came and took him and when she was touching him it was even worse and when she put him down he got better. He’s barely resting now since we had Frostbite distract her and get her away from the ghost boy’s room and we really really need your help!”

Sam pleaded with the doctor and the nurses to come with her, seeing that none of them were even close to being like the evil nurse, all of them wearing scrubs with their hair pulled back and either blonde or having bright orange hair similar to Jazz’s. They looked at her funny until the doctor asked what the nurse looked like.

“Girl, can you tell me what this nurse looks like?”

He looked worried about who it was as Sam recalled what the nurse looked like from when she and Jazz memorized what she looked like and what she wore.

“She was unnaturally skinny, her dress bright red and matching heels, and she had bright red eyes and super long, pitch black hair. And fangs. She had really creepy fangs. She took some of the ghost boy’s ectoplasm when he saw her for the first time but they were in Amity Park then.”

Sam watched the doctor exchange nervous glances with the nurses that surrounded him. One bit at her lip while the doctor kneeled down so that he was closer to Sam’s height.

“That lady doesn’t work for us. We never got any ectoplasm from any ghosts. I think you might have had a run in with Belladonna. She’s a pretty lady who uses her powers to take ectoplasm from other ghosts to fuel her own body, and once she uses the ectoplasm it puts the ghost she stole from under a torturous spell that will destroy them from the inside out.”

“How do we fix it?”

The doctor shrugged. His face became much more glum and he sighed as he looked back at Sam.

“I’ve never found a way to fix it. Every patient I’ve had thanks to her has ended up being killed from the torture of the spell her consumption of the ectoplasm puts on them.”

“There’s gotta be something we can do! Nobody has ever been able to kill Danny.”

Sam felt her weak side showing, tears welling in her eyes as she tried to find a way to save Danny. At the mention of his name the Doctor’s eyes grew, his face in shock.

“Danny? As in Danny Phantom, Danny?”

“That’s the guy. Are you gonna help him?”

“I’m gonna try. Show me where his room is and get Belladonna in here.”

The doctor pushed his rectangular glasses up his face and pulled on some gloves. He almost looked human as Sam led him down the hallway and around a few corners to where Danny was resting. Only this time Sam found Tucker and Jazz standing over him as acidic burns appeared underneath his jumpsuit, leaving ectoplasmic stains on the sheets around him. The doctor took a quick ectoplasm sample from his arm and sent it to the labs as Frostbite dragged Belladonna into the room, screaming that she be let go of.

Jazz and Sam watched as Danny got worse as she got closer to him. The doctor noticing and having her locked in a ghost-proof chair in the hallway, calming Danny’s seizure and his screaming became mumbling again. As the doctor took her ectoplasm sample Danny’s eyes flew open, the same shade of bright red as Belladonna’s instead of an acidic green.

“Kill me now!”

Danny screamed out to his friends as his body collapsed from the inside. It felt like his organs were melting, as if his blood was boiling, as if his muscles were about to explode from the pressure they were under. Danny felt the air in his lungs grow hot and his entire chest burned as he screamed trying to get the air out of his body as it continued to heat up.

His friends tried to hush him as the doctor came back with lab results.

“His ectoplasm is highly concentrated with acid and is spread throughout his body. As for Belladonna, that’s another story. I don’t know how we can help him. The acid is radiating from somewhere in his body, so even just filtering it from his ectoplasm it will return.”

“Well keep him on the filtering system until we can find a way to stop the acid, it'll at least keep him alive!”

Jazz yelled at the doctor who threw his hands into the air in defeat. He quickly hooked Danny to the blood filter they had on hand and began trying to see where the acid was coming from. Sam looked at all of the scans they put him through and noticed a small glowing portion of Danny’s arm.

“Look! It’s coming from where she took his ectoplasm!”

The doctor looked over where Sam pointed and nodded his head. It’s not only acid, it's radioactive. But it’s only having effects on him. Interesting…”

“How do you remove it?”

Tucker tapped his foot and crossed his arms while trying to avoid watching the things they did at the hospital but still worrying about his friend. His eyes were squeezed shut as he stood in the corner of the room, his body swaying as he tried to ignore the medical tools around him.

“I don’t know yet. I can try a quick surgery and see if I can remove a source, but if I can’t find something to remove then there’s not much I can do.”

The doctor turned as he heard an evil laugh from the hallway. Belladonna sat on the opposite side of the hall laughing her head off at what she was hearing. Her smile quickly returned as she heard that there was no way to save the ghost boy.

“Of course there’s no way to save him! You think I would destroy people I didn’t want around anymore if there was a way to fix what I had done?”

She laughed again as the doctor thought for a moment.

“Well, we could try destroying you and see what that does.”

Sam and Jazz shrugged curiously at him, and he picked up a scalpel. Pulling himself into the hall he began placing small cuts on Belladonna’s chest, her body gushing ectoplasm with each tiny slice. Finally, the doctor pulled a large flap of skin away from her chest revealing her ribcage, right where the ribs curled inward and almost met each other. He reached his hand out, grabbing her ribs one at a time and yanking them out of her chest, listening to her scream and to the loud cracking of the bones. Ectoplasm ran down her dress, dripping slowly to the floor as the thick liquid slid off the chair. The doctor choked down a gag as he found enough room to reach his hand through her chest and pulled her heart out with nothing but his hands. He cut the last few arteries that were holding it to her body.

“This is for all the innocent people you’ve killed.”

He smashed Belladonna’s heart against the wall, pressing right above her head until it exploded. Her shrieking voice had failed her as her body shut down. She didn’t even see the pulsing heart that was removed from her chest, nor did she see the splatter of ectoplasm that drenched the doctor, the floor, and her body as her heart burst against the wall. Belladonna was officially dead, saving many people from her future plans. The doctor turned around in his bloody lab coat, running back into the room and checking Danny over and over again with more scans.

“The radiation is gone. The acid is no longer being remade after we filter it, and all that’s left is a benign tumor that we can remove with a small surgery. I think you girls just taught me how to save people in another way.”

Jazz and Sam fell into a hug, tears spilling from both of their eyes as they saw Danny healing. After another hour, the doctor had him prepped for surgery, made sure he wouldn’t wake up and took him to the operating room. Not too much later he was laying in the hospital room waking up to see his four smiling friends.

“Danny! You’re okay!”

Jazz hugged her brother as he sat upright, his arm already healed from surgery. His scar was small, and the doctor did a nice job with his work. Tucker and Sam sat on the other side of the room and jumped up to see him when he woke up. Frostbite had gone to repark the specter speeder since it had still been in the check-in area.

Danny got a quick rundown of what happened before Tucker held his phone up to Danny, a look of worry crossing over all of his friends’ faces.

“You might want to take a look at this, dude.”

M: Danny? Are you there? Your father and I are looking everywhere for you but can’t find anyone who has seen you. Will you tell us where you are? We just want our son back.

M: You don’t need to be around that Danny Phantom ghost kid. It’s okay, you can come home.

Danny glanced up at his friends, his mind still fuzzy from what was going on at the hospital. Without thinking he took the phone from Tuck’s hands and began typing at a furiously fast pace to respond to his mom.

D: I have to be around the ghost boy. I am the ghost boy. I’m half ghost. Please, you have to believe me.

M: Danny, you can’t play this game with us forever. I promise you’re completely human. Just come home.

D: If you aren’t going to accept me there is no home. But I can make it so the ghost boy gives you the truth.

M: Danny, just come home already!

D: Fine. But you’re going to see that I’m telling you the truth the hard way.

He ended the conversation with his mom in just a few words, looking up at his friends and his sister who all looked worried about him.

“Guys, we’re going home.”

Sam and Tucker looked at each other before Tucker took his phone back from Danny.

“You sure?”

“Positive. How long has it been?”

Jazz stroked Danny’s hair as she answered him quietly.

“It’s been a week. Mom and Dad never stopped looking for you.”

Danny sighed. A week was a long time. But he had expected to be gone longer than a week, so it wasn’t so bad. He looked around the room at the people smiling at him. Frostbite quietly walked in the room, giving him a solid pat on the shoulder.

“Good choice to go home, Savior.”

Danny smiled weakly.

“I hope it’s my best choice. If they have to try dissecting the ghost boy to find that it’s their son, let them. I’ve been through worse. It’s time they knew the actual truth about me.”

Danny attempted to get himself out of the bed, his body still wobbly and unstable. Tucker helped him to their ship and the girls began to pack their belongings. Frostbite flew back to his own home with a quick goodbye, knowing that they would see each other once again. The specter speeder flew quickly back towards Amity Park, using the Fenton Portal as a target to get them back again.

“Thanks for knowing how to get home, Sam.”

Danny weakly smiled from the backseat, his body almost healed but every last part of him exhausted and wanting sleep and rest. He should have listened to the doctor and stayed at the hospital for a few more days, but he hated the idea of being stuck in the hospital while his parents looked for him and Amity Park needed protecting. Not one thought of what happened to Belladonna crossed his mind. He looked out the window as Sam continued driving the four of them back home.

“Danny, it’s not a big deal. We come here all the time, I’ve got half the Ghost Zone memorized by now.”

Danny felt her roll her eyes and gave off a tired smirk as they got closer to his house.

“Take a nap, Danny. You look like you need it.”

Jazz turned and looked at him as he leaned against the side wall and flopped to the floor of the ship, his eyelids drooping, his muscles aching from overuse. He nodded slowly and closed his eyes, letting his chest fall to a steady rhythm. He had no dreams, no nightmares, and saw only black for the time it took them to get back.

Tucker poked Danny awake as they got close to the portal back to the real world. It took a while, but eventually, Danny was wide awake and ready for what waited on the other side of the stripped doors. He returned to his human form before taking the controls from Sam and letting out a deep sigh of fear.

His mind pushed him to enter the lab, his body pushed him not to move, until Jazz pressed him on until he finally stepped on the gas sending them back to the real world that they called home. Stepping out of the vehicle, Danny called out to his parents to see if they were home.

“Mom? Dad?”

He cupped his hand around his mouth as he called out to his parents, hoping to hear a response. He got nothing.

“It’s Danny. I just got back from where I was staying while you guys calmed down after hearing that I was part ghost!”

He heard a slight shuffle of feet and saw his dad’s shadow at the top of the stairs. His mom appeared from another room of the lab. He looked at the dark circles under their eyes and the sadness that they gave off.

“Mom, Dad. I’m half ghost. Why can’t you believe me? Danny Phantom is half human. Please, listen to me.”

His mom walked up to him and poked at his skin, she felt his body to find his low body temperature. She pinched at his arm to find a sharp inhale at the sudden pain as her nails cut into his skin and made him bleed.

“Can’t you just believe me? Can you not just accept that your son is part ghost?”

Danny felt himself on the verge of tears. His dad stumbled down the stairs as Jazz, Sam, and Tucker all climbed out of the ship, not a word said by anyone except Danny.

“Can’t you see that it’s still me?”

Danny changed himself to his ghostly alter ego.

“Can’t you see that it’s still Danny?”

He paused as he saw his mom pick up a Fenton Thermos that he had given power to in order to make it function properly.

“That it’s still your Danny?”

For what felt like ages he floated just a few inches above the floor, waiting for an answer. Lines appeared on his mom’s face from her stress, Jazz walking to her brother’s side. She placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a small squeeze to show her support and the love she still had for him, even if he wasn’t completely human. He looked to his mom again, his dad walking up behind her. Maddie finally gave an answer.

“I do still see my son. And I am going to get him back from the ghost vermin that decided to combine with him.”

“What are you…”

Maddie held a hand up and cut Danny off.

“I want my son the way he was before. Human.”

“But I am human! I’m human and…”

“Only human.”

Maddie held up a small electric saw that they often used to dissect other beings and Danny felt his eyes grow wide, saw Sam and Tucker run in front of him, felt that it was too late. He looked down to see a large hole below his chest, blood and ectoplasm running down his suit, off of his boots, and leaving large splatters on the floor. He felt himself grow weaker until he had to land in the puddle of green and red liquid below him, Jazz and Tucker holding him up.

“You’re a monster.”

Sam whispered to Maddie as she mercilessly pulled the saw away from her son who refused to return to his human half. Danny stopped Sam from doing anything else by putting a hand up.

“Sam. Don’t bother. I told you, I would go through anything so long as they finally believe the truth. So long as they finally realize that I’m half ghost and that Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom are the same person. Because they’re my parents, and I love them, and I’m done lying to the people I care about the most. It’s time they knew that I am Danny Phantom.”

“Danny, you can’t expect me to just.”

Danny reached a hand out and lightly swatted at Sam’s face, obviously losing strength since he had meant it to be like how she had smacked him before they left for the Ghost Zone.

“I said I would go through anything.”

A wet ‘splat’ echoed in the lab as Danny collapsed to his knees, his body healed enough that he wouldn’t die, but enough that he wouldn’t feel it. His body weakened and the last thing he remembered was the vaporisation feeling of being sucked into the Fenton Thermos along with a scream from his two friends and his sister, his parents talking about what experiments would be done on him the next day when the three teenagers weren’t around.

The only thing remaining of Danny was the blood and ectoplasm pooled on the floor, and Sam knelt down next to it in tears.

“You two are monsters. You’re going to hurt yourselves more than anything when you do your experiments. You’re going to hurt your own son.”

She stood up and walked out, just waiting to hear what Danny had to say when he talked to her next. He would either be Danny or would be a complete ghost. Sam was almost too afraid to think about finding out which it would be.

Maddie watched as the teenagers walked away, and whispered to the thermos she held in her hand.

“Don’t worry, son. You’ll be human again. I promise.”


	5. The Lab

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hey guys! Oh my god, this chapter was so hard to write, and it feels like it took forever. I ended up taking my least favorite route with this one, but it was just because I could actually figure out an ending and how to explain how things happened in this path. I hope to someday be able to write something very different, but that story will take a lot more planning. So I hope you enjoy this story so far, and I hope to have the next and final chapter up in a couple of days. As always, feel free to comment, give suggestions, criticisms, or even requests for a certain character's POV. I'm very open at this point with how new I am to writing, but I hope you enjoy!

Maddie looked up to Jack and he gave her a thumbs up motion to show that he was ready to start their experiments. She grabbed the thermos that was holding their supposed son, that was holding a ghost who claimed to be human as well as an ecto-being. There were vials and beakers filled to the brim with liquids in a large array of colors. Jack stood along the wall opposite Maddie holding a well-sized ghost taser to make sure the ghost wouldn't be able to escape and endanger any more harmless teenagers in the city.

She quietly turned a small ghost shield on, the lever refusing to move as she pushed on it with all the force she could. Maddie saw her arms shaking as she worried about her only son, his life in danger thanks to the being that was now sitting inside of the thermos resting in her hands. The shield formed a cube, connecting rods lining the walls of it so that there was nowhere for the ghost to run.

Silently, Maddie released the ghost her and her beloved husband found to be evil, destructive, and manipulative. She felt her thoughts blur as she recalled how many times she had seen similarities between Danny and the ghost boy, how many times one of them was around and not the other. She recalled how her son had told her that he was half ghost, how the ghostly entity that was floating before her and coming to had said that he wasn't just a ghost.

Jack leveled his blaster to meet with the point between Phantom's eyes. His hands were shaking as much as Maddie had found hers to be. She grabbed a tray containing scalpels, extraction needles, sanitation gloves, empty vials, microscope slides, and a couple of small ectoblasters to keep the ghost boy in line and set it upon a small tabletop that was mobile for her convenience.

Danny slowly looked up to the ceiling, his body reforming to its proper state after being sucked into the thermos, which he found to be a form of torture for any ghost. He had never left a ghost in the thermos for more than a few hours, never overnight like he knew his parents had left him. His mind was blurred, his vision unclear as he floated a few inches above the floor. His arms stretched outwards, finally healed from being broken so long ago before running off. But that didn't say anything for the deep slash in his abdominal region. Ectoplasm dripped from his midsection as he looked it over to see how badly he was hurt.

Pain radiated from the cut, but he watched as it healed while he was in his ghost form and let out a relieved sigh as he saw that it wouldn't kill him. He found his body returned to normal, the only irregular part being that he was a ghost hybrid, uncapable of being accepted by his parents. Danny looked upwards, his face met with an old ghost taser that he had seen used on other ghosts before him.

"Don't. Move."

Jack's breath smelled of fudge and cheese-flavored chips that made Danny want to hurl. His brain raced with how they would torture him, possibly even kill him. He thought of Sam and Tucker, probably both sitting at home, worried sick as they knew that he had accepted to be tortured, so long as his family finally got the truth he had been hiding from them for so many months. Then he thought of Jazz and felt his heart drop. She was just a few floors above him, most likely sitting in her room attempting to distract herself from what she knew was going on in the basement below her. He knew she would be able to hear him scream and he felt guilt wash over his body.

Maddie stepped through the ghost shield that Danny had been unable to see until he looked for it, too much in shock at what they were doing to say a word or to move. Maddie silently tied a small rope to one of Danny's wrists before walking away and pressing a small button. Her head hung in distress as she tried to find her human son. As the button was released a small table rose from the floor, a dissection table from Danny's memory. His body was pulled down out of the air at a pace quick enough that Danny let out a small cry of surprise.

Maddie walked towards him and looked him over, clamping each of his limbs to the table as he attempted to sit upright. His mom pulled a rolling table up to her side as she looked Danny over once again. She still hadn't made eye contact with him, as hard as he was trying to make her do.

"Mom."

Danny's voice croaked as he tried to get her attention. Maddie continued to gather supplies and look Danny's body over, ignoring her son's voice with a ghostly echo.

"Mom, please."

Danny's eyes were begging for her to notice him, and from his peripheral vision, he saw his dad move uncomfortably. His hands shook harder and his eyes kept flipping between Maddie and Danny. His body looked like it was about to collapse in fear as he shook lightly and swayed nervously on his feet. Danny saw him lower his weapon.

"Mads, he wants your attention."

Maddie finally looked up from her work, her hands shaking, her eyes watery with what looked like tears.

"I know, Jack. But I'm not going to let that ecto-being trick us into thinking that he's our son. Very clearly, he's not. We just need to find Danny. Our Danny."

She shot Danny a dirty look as he frowned at her when she spat his name to him- "ecto-being". Maddie looked away as Jack tried to talk to her again.

"But Maddie, what if this is our son? What if he really is only half ghost and half human? What if..."

Maddie cut Jack off, Danny gasping at the sharpness in her voice.

"That's not scientifically possible, Jack. There is no way our son has ghost powers, and there is no way this ghost is even slightly human."

She pulled a small needle from the tray as Jack winced to how harshly she had answered him. Danny looked to his parents and realized how open minded his dad was about what was going on for how much he hated ghosts, while his mom was basing everything off of scientific data she already had access to.

"But I am your son. I am only half ghost. My other half is human."

Danny smiled at Jack, who gave a quick smile back, finally beginning to piece things together and believe his son. Jack set his weapon down and knelt on the floor, reaching a hand out to ruffle Danny's hair.

"Haven't you ever noticed how often your son is missing when the ghost boy is around? Or how you can't find Phantom when your son reappears? Did you not believe what you saw with your own eyes or what three other teenagers, who are much smarter than me, told you?"

He looked over at his mom who had stopped moving, her body shaking as she readied the small needle she had picked up a few moments beforehand.

"Don't you hear my voice? Don't you hear that it's me? That it's Daniel James Fenton?"

Jack pressed his hand against the floor, pushing himself upwards and standing beside Danny.

"I do. I believe that it's you. I've had enough proof and have seen you change form. I've seen flashes of my son in you, and flashes of you in my son. I know that it's you, Danny."

Tears welled in Jack's eyes as he released Danny's upper body to give him a large hug. Danny felt his heart leap as he hugged his dad back. Jack looked Danny in the eyes as he pulled away to try and reason with Maddie.

"I'm really proud of you, son. All those ghost fights that have been on the news, all those times I never knew it was you trying to be a good guy, all those times I attempted to hurt you... I'm proud of you for not giving in."

"What do you mean?"

Danny looked at his dad as he gave off a long sigh.

"After all those times of me trying to hurt you, telling you that you were evil, trying to destroy you I wouldn't have blamed you for becoming evil or running away, refusing to ever see me again. I'm really proud of you for what you've done."

"Thanks, Dad."

Danny smiled at his dad as he felt his middle heal. When he dad turned to Maddie, Danny looked down and saw that his midsection was mainly healed, his body becoming whole again as one parent accepted him. Danny knew that convincing his mom would be an entirely different experience that would most likely get him hurt.

He looked over to his mom who had attached an empty vial to the needle she was holding. Jack had walked over to her and told her that it was Danny, his voice soothing and meant to be convincing. Maddie's eyes were filled with tears, which left Danny worried and made him give his dad a few nervous glances. Silently, his mom walked back over to him, pulling rubber gloves on before forcefully shoving Danny's upper body back to the table, pinning his wrists back to the surface of the table. Danny let out a small grunt as his breath was knocked from his lungs at the impact from his mom. She turned back to Jack, her hands on her hips, the hair around her neck swinging from side to side from the force she used to turn around.

"Jack, this is not our son. And I shouldn't have to remind you that you can't touch the ghosts without protection. Especially not the one who is preventing us from finding Danny. You also cannot let them go. Jack, I don't know what has gotten into you, but you can't believe this... this... this monster sitting before us."

"Maddie, listen to him."

"It doesn't get to be called 'him'. It is a dead being from another dimension, hiding our son from us and manipulating the people of Amity Park."

"But Maddie, this is our son. He isn't hiding Danny, this is Danny. Just look at him, listen to his voice."

Jack's eyes begged with Maddie, and he saw the tears in her eyes begin to run down her cheeks. She quietly hid her face with the mask of her jumpsuit as she walked towards Danny. His eyes grew wide as he saw her lift the needle she had been messing with up to his arm rather than letting it rest by her side. She pulled the cap off of the needle, the hand holding the cap still shaking, the one grasping the needle as steady as it had ever been. She pressed it into Danny's vein with more than enough force, causing Danny to scream in agony.

"Maddie, what are you doing?"

She pulled ectoplasm from Danny's arm, him still screaming in pain as she pulled the sample and yanked the needle from his arm, not bothering to cover where she removed the needle. Ectoplasm dripped to the floor, staining the concrete floor as Jack attempted to stop the bleeding.

Maddie continued her work by taking the sample she had from Danny's ectoplasm over to a lab table to get the chemical makeup of it on paper, ignoring her husband in the process. Danny quit screaming as his arm healed. He looked over at Maddie as she shuffled through a few other papers and waited for the results to her testing. Her eyes were hidden but Danny could feel that she was crying. He saw her chest spasm as she held back tears.

"Jack, don't you care? About our son? He hasn't been found anywhere, and the only one who might have a clue, even the slightest idea, is the ghost that I'm trying to get information from."

"But he's not just a ghost. He's also human."

Jack picked up the results of Maddie's first test, the goal being to find what made up the ghost's ectoplasm. He looked through the papers, holding them just out of Maddie's sight. Jack put a hand to his chin and Danny sighed, knowing what the answer would be. He watched his dad set the papers back down on the table behind him.

"Mads, these samples are consistent with human blood components. It's not pure ectoplasm. From the looks of it, its eighty-nine percent ectoplasm and eleven percent human blood."

Maddie scowled back at Jack, her mind ignoring what he said. She picked the papers up, shuffling through them to find a scientific explanation as to where her son was.

"Jack, you can't be serious right now. There's no way these samples show any bit of humanity in them. This is a complete ghost, and scientifically that means that... oh... my..."

Maddie trailed off as she looked at the papers closely, Jack being correct about Danny's ectoplasm also having human blood characteristics. Jack smiled at Danny as a confused look came over Maddie's face, her brow beginning to scrunch towards the middle of her forehead, her eyes narrowing behind her goggles. She continually muttered to herself, getting more tools ready and making it look like she was going to be performing more tests and experiments.

"This can't be right."

"Do you believe that he's Danny now?"

Jack leaned on the wall, Danny looking over at the both of them. He held his breath just waiting for an answer from his mom, her confused look making it seem like there was about to be a breakthrough. But he gave a disappointed sigh as she violently shook her head no, picking up a scalpel and walking towards Danny. Jack grabbed her by the arm, her body freezing as she was held back from her work.

"Maddie, you can't do that to your son."

She huffed in anger and annoyance as she pulled her arm away from Jack's grip, still walking over to Danny who had his eyes staring sadly at his feet.

"This isn't our son. Get that through your head, Jack. And since these results came through incorrectly, I have no choice but to take him apart molecule by molecule until he gives our son back."

She yanked her body through the ghost shield, Jack gave a low sigh and followed after her, quickly kneeling down to ruffle Danny's hair again for comfort. Danny looked up at his dad, his eyes filled with fear as the point of the scalpel came close to his body, finally pressing against his thigh and puncturing his skin. Danny screamed as he felt the puncture of the skin, ectoplasm began to gush from a broken artery as Maddie took notes.

"Hmmm... Phantom seems to have human muscles, but the ghost muscles seem to be much more flexible than any human's could be. That can't be right... every other ghost is just an ectoplasmic form, none of them had a structure to their bodies."

Tears ran down Danny's face as she picked up the electric saw she had used the night before collided with his arm, slicing through his biceps and halfway through his bone, his body beginning to bleed not only his ectoplasm but human blood as well, earning him a surprised breath from Maddie as the green and red pooled below him and his muscles squirmed, trying to heal but being unable to as Maddie pinned them back so she could access Danny's bone marrow.

"I don't understand, ghosts don't have skeletons."

Danny gave a gurgled laugh as Maddie cut at his cheek for a different ectoplasm sample, this one being both blood and ectoplasm at the same time, and the blood ran into his mouth as he turned his head to face her.

"That might just be because this ghost isn't just a ghost. Not to mention that you haven't met many of the more complex ghosts, you've seen the ghosts that are similar to what they used in the old ghost movies."

Jack smiled, holding his son's hand as Danny just put up with what his mom was doing. Danny whispered to his dad in fear as he watched his mom put out a few weapons and charge them.

"Is she ever going to believe me?"

"I... I don't know. She's a smart woman, I'm sure she'll come through eventually."

Jack took a large breath of air, barely able to breathe at the thought that was fluttering through his mind.

"Let's just hope she realizes it's you before she kills you completely."

Danny nodded and closed his eyes, waiting to feel himself being torn apart as his mom dissected his body. Nothing came as he sat, waiting for his end. He slowly cracked one eye open, staring at his feet as his mom looked at more papers, her hands shaking as she read that his blood was consistent with eighty-nine percent human blood and eleven percent ectoplasmic specimens. Tears were leaking from her goggles, Jack walked over to comfort her. She grabbed one ectoblaster and charged it, pulling away from Jack as he tried to make her put it down.

Maddie walked over to Danny where he was laying on the table. She aimed a small ectoblast right over his heart, whispering to Danny what he figured was meant to give her some security.

"Don't worry, this isn't enough to kill you, only give me the information I need."

Danny looked his mom in the eyes, forcing his eyes to flash their more common ice blue as he felt the weapon charging, right above his core. He felt the cold of his core being pulled closer to the surface of his skin, he felt his DNA being separated and screamed as he felt his humanity being ripped away from his ghost half. Maddie shot the weapon at Danny's core, his ghost half too weak to show itself, returning him to his human form in pain. He screamed harder, louder, Jack had to cover his ears to keep from having his ears bleed.

Jazz sat a few floors above, hugging a pillow on her bed and crying, hoping that her brother was alright. He had always been very good at having people believe him, but she knew that her parents were going to be the last people to believe Danny. She looked up violently as she heard a deafening scream from the basement.

"Danny!"

She ran down the stairs, her feet gliding across the floor, moving the fastest she had ever run. As she stood at the top of the stairs to the basement she called out to her brother, unable to see what was happening to him.

"Danny?"

More screaming continued and she saw a large body walk in front of the stairs at the bottom. A bright orange suit motioned for her to come downstairs, a black hand shaking in what appeared to be fear. Jazz followed the orders she was given to come and ran down the stairs to see her brother being ripped in half as he returned to his human state. She felt tears running down her face as Danny's back arched just like it had in the Ghost Zone, only this time it was his mom destroying him for tests rather than an evil ghost using his ectoplasm.

"Danny! Oh my god! MOM STOP!"

Jazz ran to her brother's side, followed by her dad, and tried to get their mom to stop hurting Danny. His screaming didn't waver, it didn't falter, it wouldn't stop. Maddie was crying as she continued to blast at Danny's ghost core.

"Where is my son?! What have you done to my son, you freak?!"

Maddie screamed while she was in tears, obviously still thinking that she was only doing experiments on a ghost who was trying to fool her that he was her son as Danny's body flashed between his ghost half and his human half, his core running out of energy until he was stuck in his human state. Danny continued to scream, tears running down his face from the amount of pain he was in as his ghost half became weaker as he was blasted.

Jazz ended up trying to pry the ectoblaster from her mom's hands as Jack pulled her away from the table with Danny. He continued to scream for a few minutes as Jazz and Jack tried to stop Maddie, but they couldn't get the gun to turn off and she began to blast other places in the lab, barely missing Jazz's head and shoulder. Tears still ran down Maddie's face as her body gave out and Jazz walked her to sit down on a stool in the lab as Jack took her weapon and put it away. Danny's screaming died down as his body healed and his ghost core began to produce its own energy once again.

"Where is Danny?"

Jazz and Jack exchanged looks, Jazz realizing that her dad had believed Danny when they got home from the Ghost Zone and that he needed her help to convince Maddie that Danny was right in front of her. Danny had calmed down, his body healing, tears still streaming down his face as his arm seemed to respond as they healed, each one seeming to reform itself, yet not. His muscles reconnected to one another, healing over so that they were working just as they were before, his bones doing the same. Each cut scabbed over and eventually turned to nothing but a faint scar before even that faded away. Ectoplasm and blood remained on the table and floor, staining Danny's t-shirt and jeans as he slowed his breathing.

Jack noticed that he was alright and walked over to let him up. He got a tight hug from Danny as his arms were released from their bindings, Danny refusing to let go as his legs were released. Jack quickly hugged his son back as Jazz talked to Maddie. Danny let go of his dad, his eyes filled with tears of joy and still from pain as he healed, smiling up at Jack who was finally able to return the smile to his son.

"Thanks, Dad."

"Of course, son. Let's get you cleaned up."

Danny limped on his leg that his mom had cut as it finished healing and Jack supported him up the stairs and to the kitchen where they washed his cuts to make sure they didn't get infected, even with his ghost powers healing them. Danny stripped himself of his clothes and walked around in his boxers for a few minutes while his clothes were thrown in the washer by his dad in an attempt to save them from the stains they went through. Danny had his dad help him up to his room where he quickly threw on his after fight clothes, so he was sitting on his bed in an old black sweatshirt, a pair of grey sweatpants and some long socks. He smiled at his dad as his father beamed at him with pride.

"You are my son. The heroic ghost boy is my son."

Jack couldn't begin to describe how thrilled he was with the fact that his son was the ghost boy. He was beyond proud of everything his son had done, and sitting in a chair in Danny's room while he got dressed he listened to stories of how things had been from Danny's point of view, believing every word of it as it fell from Danny's mouth since he now knew that this was his son. Jack had missed the clues of how it was his son, how his Danny and Phantom were the same person. He missed how often Danny knew what was going on in the ghost community, how many hints Danny gave about his powers since he got them, and how often he came home with injuries. But Jack knew now, and he was beyond happy with his son.

Jack wasn't even upset with Danny for lying about his powers for so long. He had plenty of reason to. Jack had been hunting his own son without knowing it, had tried to destroy him because he thought that Phantom had ruined Christmas, tried to hurt him because he thought that he had tried to capture the mayor, trapped him because somebody had put a large reward on Danny's head, tried to dissect him just because he was a ghost.

Jack felt guilty for not seeing the clues, but he listened as Danny told him about how Jazz dated a ghost, how the ghost that attacked them at Lake Eerie was hunting him because he was half ghost, the stories of Ember and Youngblood, how he had fought himself from the future and prevented himself from being evil. He listened to Danny tell him of a dog by the name of Cujo, of a dragon ghost that had taken over the prom, of a ghost that took over the whole city with nothing but plants.

Danny told Jack of endless stories, saying that once things with his mom were figured out, he would tell the whole story. Jack nodded slowly, still beaming at his son who was braver than he was, able to fight ghosts at all times and still approach the people who tried to kill him. His son saved people at any costs, even if it risked his life. Jack stood up as Danny pulled his socks on, each one being a different color.

"Dad, can we go see Mom now? I think she's finally broken through."

Jack nodded to Danny and began to support him down the stairs since his ghost core was still healing and his leg was too sore to support his entire body weight right away.

Jazz looked her mom in the eyes, pulling her mask and goggles away to find smeared eyeliner and mascara running down her cheeks. She looked back at Jazz, but studied her daughter's hair, the floor around her, the wall behind her. Anything to look at that would avoid eye contact with Jazz, which brought a look of concern to her daughter's face.

"Mom?"

Maddie moved her eyes to look just over Jazz's head. She quickly flicked her vision to the floor instead, seeing the table where Danny had been laying just minutes before.

"Mom, it's okay. You didn't know that it was really Danny. But it was."

Jazz continued to talk to Maddie, explaining that it was still her son. Of course, Maddie knew that, at this point just not wanting to believe the truth. The blood samples, the changes from ghost to human, the skeleton and the muscles. None of it lined up with somebody who was just a ghost, yet not just human either. Danny had been telling the truth the whole time after he had tried to admit to being the ghost boy. Maddie had ignored all of it, forcing herself to think that he was lying, that it was just the ghost boy taking the place of her son because she wanted to believe that her son was completely human.

She had noticed a few hints as Danny tried to reveal himself without saying a word to them. Maddie had seen Danny flicker ectoenergy from his fingers and had seen a thin blue wisp escape from his mouth. She had seen blue eyes turn green and green eyes flash blue when the ghost boy was around. She had noticed Danny make a poor excuse of where he was going whenever a ghost showed up, and right after he left, Phantom showed up. When Phantom disappeared, Danny was back. Maddie had noticed several different times where her son stood up for the ghost that the town loved, but she refused to accept it in attempt to make it so that her son remained completely human.

"Mom, Danny even texted you how he got his powers. It wasn't a good thing, but he's a good ghost. He saves the town."

Maddie held a hand up, shushing her daughter's lecture of how Danny became a ghost, how he was half ghost. She had scientific proof now to show that it was possible for him to be a hybrid, and she had scientific proof that her son was the ghost boy. She looked up at Jazz, her eyes fading to a look of sadness.

"I know, sweetie. I know. Your brother is half ghost, half human. Your brother is Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom."

She paused as Jazz looked to the stairs. Maddie followed Jazz's gaze as a weak voice called down to her from the kitchen upstairs. It had a ghostly echo to it and Jack's shadow was in the doorway, his own voice booming compared to what Maddie knew had to be Danny's voice.

"Can you guys come up here?"

Danny's feet appeared at the top of the stairs, one blue sock, one green sock - which Maddie found ironic compared to what colors his eyes were depending on which half he was at the time.

"Coming!"

Jazz returned her brother's call and motioned for Maddie to follow. When she didn't move, Maddie received an annoyed scowl from Jazz and was pushed up from the chair, her body then supported to the stairs. Maddie had to take a few deep breaths to accept what she was about to see. She had just tried to destroy her own son out of a state of denial, and now he wanted to talk to his family. Maddie thought about what he would want to say and her mind landed on him running away again, on her never seeing her little boy grow up and have a life after today. As her feet landed on the top stair, Maddie was welcomed to a smiling face from Danny.

 

His face was brighter than it was in the basement, Jack beaming about him from beside the fridge. Jazz stood by her brother's side and gave him a wide smile, patting him on the back. Maddie felt her jaw slack until her mouth was partially open and Jazz lifted her hand to close it.

"You're happy?"

Maddie couldn't stop herself from blurting out her questions.

"Of course I am. My parents finally know who I am, and dad's proud of me."

Danny paused and looked at the floor before looking at his mom, his smile fading.

"Are you?"

His hands wrang around each other nervously as he waited for an answer. Maddie thought about all she had put him through, all that he had been through and all that he had experienced both as their son and as a ghost. A hero, really.

"Yes. I am proud of you as well."

Maddie felt her tongue go dry as she talked to the son she had injured more than once, which was already too many times for her. She watched as a smile brightened on his face and he went back to telling his dad a story about how there had been a ghost by the name of Clockwork who let him go back in time and change what happened to them in college, but then he had to re-set time because Danny majorly screwed up and wasn't able to fix anything. Jack seemed so happy with Danny, and before she knew it, Maddie found herself running over to Danny, hugging him around the shoulders. He let out a cry of surprise as Maddie felt tears fall from her eyes.

"Oh, my little boy."

Danny tried to squirm free as Maddie clung to him.

"Mom, I still gotta breathe!"

"Danny, I'm so sorry I didn't believe you when you said you were telling us the truth. I just couldn't bring myself to believe that my son was part ghost. I never wanted you or your sister exposed to ghosts in that way and now..."

"Mom,"

Danny cut her off.

"It's okay. You didn't expose me to anything, I did it to myself. Besides, I'm just fighting ghosts like my parents are."

He gave off a cheesy grin as he put his hands on his hips, his body still small for a boy his age. Maddie looked at him like he was crazy. She stuttered off a few nonsensical phrases before making a sentence for Danny to understand.

"But I hurt you. I'm your mother and I hurt you. How can you even talk to me right now, how could you talk to me at all?"

Danny responded with a laugh, looking at his dad and then back to his mom.

"Because you didn't know it was me. I chose to keep my powers secret from you. I chose to make myself inhuman. Come on, follow me."

Danny walked off to the basement, not even bothering to see if his mom followed him. His sister was by his side and he heard his dad's footsteps from behind him. The lab was the same as always, still stained with old ectoplasm samples and cheese spray from his dad's snacktime routines, which Danny rolled his eyes at. He shuddered at the sight of his ectoplasm and blood, still wet puddles on the floor. He felt his mind push the thought of that from his thoughts as he walked closer to the portal.

Danny looked behind him to see his mom nervously walking towards him. Her hands were clutched against her chest and her bottom lip trembled as she bit it. He looked at her and smiled again, if he could make her comfortable with her then maybe they could all work together to fight ghosts. Sam and Tuck needed some new technology, and Jazz needed trained. He would have a great team to work with.

"What is it you wanted to show me, Danny?"

He sighed.

"You asked why I wasn't upset with you for what you did. And I get why you would ask that. But look here."

Danny opened the portal, revealing the swirling green of the transfer screen blocking the purple doors and black shelves from their view. Jack and Maddie looked at him questioningly.

"In there is a ghost named Clockwork. And after I had to fight my evil, older self from ten years in the future, which I will tell you that story if you'd like to hear it once we get comfortable again, Clockwork taught me a lesson. Giving me a chance to change things so that I don't become evil in the future. He told me that I had given everyone else in my life a second chance, so why not myself. So here we are. I'm giving you a second chance, because I care about you."

Danny looked at his parents. His dad gave a proud smile, his mom a few tears of joy as her son was okay with her, even after she tortured him. They all stood in the lab, each one thinking of how things would be now that Danny's secret was known by the ghost hunters of the town. Danny was glad, Jack was excited, Maddie felt guilty, and Jazz was nervous about her brother's safety. Yet each one of them felt closer to each the others.

A small blue wisp escaped Danny's lips as they stood there. Maddie watched his eyes go crosseyed staring at it as it floated in front of his nose for a moment. His sister handed him a thermos and Jack gave him a pat on the back.

"I'm guessing that means it's time for you to fight a ghost?"

"Yeah. It's called a ghost sense, Dad. It lets me know that a ghost is nearby."

His mom looked him over, his injuries healed, his body functioning once again.

"Can you... you know... change?"

"What? Oh, yeah. My core charged it's powers again. I can change. Do you guys want to hear some more about this when I get home?"

Danny's voice shook, afraid of what his mom might say. He already knew his dad wanted to hear about it, and he knew his dad was proud of him. He was just worried about his mom's opinion.

"Can you show us?"

"Show you what?"

He gave his mom a questioning look, rubbing his shoulder as his sister jabbed her elbow at him.

"Go ghost, Danny. Duh."

The two teens laughed as the parents exchanged glances, neither one knowing what they meant by 'go ghost'. Danny saw that they were confused and tried to make himself stop laughing. He held his stomach where he was getting a cramp from his ecstatic laughter.

"That's my battle cry. I use it almost everytime I change from human to ghost. Watch this. I'm Going Ghost!"

Danny focused his energy and felt his core grow cold, his rings washing over his body as he transformed to the town's superhero. His feet floated just a few inches above the ground, his suit completely repaired from the cuts Maddie had made to it. She seemed to flinch away from Danny after he went ghost, and he noticed this, a small look of defeat coming over his face before he put on the fake superhero look.

"I'll be careful, don't worry, Jazz. It should only be Youngblood. Meet me in the living room when I get home?"

Jazz nodded as she waved her brother away to fight whichever ghosts were out there. He smiled at her and floated over to his dad, who ruffled his hair, and then quickly gave his mom a kiss on the cheek as he floated out of the basement, phasing through the ceiling rather than floating up the stairs.

The last thing Jack and Maddie heard from him before that fight was what surprised them the most, after everything they had done to him, all they had put him through, Danny still called out to them as mom and dad and still cared about them. What he called out to them on his way out of the house rang through Jack and Maddie's heads over and over again.

"Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad! I'll see you when I get home from this battle!"

Danny was going to be coming home.


	6. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: It's finally done! I cannot believe I got this whole work done, especially this chapter, but I somehow did. I hope you guys enjoy this final chapter!

Danny looked at the roof of his house, breathing quickly as he recovered from his fight with Youngblood. His mind began to wander, his heart to race as he thought of what his parents really thought of him. His dad seemed to believe him, but his mom seemed a bit more wary of the idea that Danny was part ghost. And while she said that she was proud of him, the hesitation she gave made him nervous. He told them that he would meet them in the living room when his fight was over, but Danny almost felt that he would be safer staying with Sam or Tucker for a few days, or at least until everything blew over.

Taking a deep breath Danny decided to enter his own house and stay with his family instead. His dad was proud of him, had tried to protect Danny from his mom as she decided to tear him apart. He shuddered at the memory of his two halves being torn apart from one another as his mom tried to make herself believe that her son was completely human. It only made Danny think of how his future Danny Phantom had been created in the alternate world Danny had prevented.

Danny phased through the roof to his house, finding himself to be floating in his room like always. Quietly he floated down the stairs and landed on the floor to the kitchen, walking into the living room to see his family gathered there, his dad trying to comfort his mom, his sister reading a book, his mom in tears - still looking upset that Danny wasn't completely human, which made Danny more jittery and made his stomach gain butterflies.

"Uh... hi guys."

Danny held up one hand, slightly waving to his family. All three of them looked up to see him standing there, still as Danny Phantom, still with injuries that would need to be treated and bandaged. Jazz smiled at her brother, rolling her eyes as he rubbed the back of his neck in the middle of the awkward silence surrounding them. Maddie had straightened up, sniffling a bit but holding back tears, a small smile spreading on her face as she saw what was now her son. Jack stood up from the chair he was sitting in and walked over to Danny, his face beginning to break into a smile as Danny set a thermos down on the coffee table, obviously holding a ghost.

"Danny! You're back!"

"Yeah. Do you mind if I go and clean up my wounds from the fight before we talk?"

"Of course not."

Jazz closed her book and set it next to her on a small side table.

"You go and fix yourself, I'll go make all of us some tea."

Danny smiled at his sister and his dad as they shooed him away to clean up the small injuries he had received from Youngblood and his crew. There were only a few minor scrapes, and for once, no broken bones. Danny quickly phased back to his room from below and sat on his bed. He quietly took his old first aid kit from behind his headboard and patched up his cuts, one on his upper arm, another on his side, the final few being around his wrists and ankles where Youngblood had grabbed at Danny with his one hand that was a pirate's hook. Danny left his bandages on his bed and walked over to his closet, looking for his usual clothes. Now that his parents knew his secret, he didn't have anything to hide in means of bandages. He pulled out his usual shirt and a pair of jeans, returning himself to his human form and changing out of his old 'after-fight' clothes.

Danny quietly walked down the stairs to see Jazz holding a cup of tea out to their mom, her eyes staring at the floor and ignoring Jazz. Danny quickly felt his nerves go through the roof, his body screaming at him that she still wasn't accepting him for who he really was. He found himself become nervous about being around his mom. His dad was great, however. Holding a cup of hot chocolate that was overflowing with marshmallows, even in the middle of the summer, smiling as Danny walked down the stairs and gave off a small smirk. His sister turned her head, saw her brother and stood up from where she was kneeling, setting her mom's tea on a table beside her mom.

"Hey, Danny. Glad you're back."

"Me too. Youngblood was being a pain again, and I almost had to call you out to help with him again. He had his entire pirate's crew with him and was..."

Danny cut himself off as he saw his dad's face, obviously wanting to hear more about Youngblood and how the fight went.

"He was all like, 'I've come to take my prize from you at last! You can't win this time, I'm gonna have all of your town powering my ship!' and I was like, 'I don't think so, Youngbutt!' and we ended up in a huge fight. Thankfully his crew is easy to beat since they're all just skeletons and all, but there were four times as many as there was last time he was pirate instead of a cowboy or an astronaut. He caught me a few times around the wrists and ankles with his hook, but I'm okay, and he's in that thermos. So I'll get him back to Walker's prison in a day or two and then see what ghost wants to attack me next."

Jazz ruffled his hair as Danny grabbed a glass filled with iced tea and sat down in a chair, as far away from his mom as possible. Even while Danny was telling everyone his story she made him nervous and was giving off suspicious looks. His dad, on the other hand, was a completely different story.

"You fought that pirate ghost? Cool! I would have loved to help you, but right now, I'm just glad you're safe! I mean, look at you! You're a hero... AND a ghost hunter like your old man!"

Jack was unable to stop smiling, talking about how he wanted to help Danny fight ghosts, which Danny gave an awkward smile to the thought of. He looked over at his mom as his dad continued to talk about how Danny should tell more stories about other ghosts and tell him about the Ghost Zone. She hadn't said one word, and while still looking his body over, refused to make eye contact with him. Danny felt his stomach lurch forward as he looked at his mom, his sister stood by his side, his dad was on the couch not too far away.

"Mom?"

Danny leaned back in the chair he was sitting in as his mom's eyes sharply flew to his face, her entire body stiff as she looked at her son. Danny felt the tension in the room rise as he looked back at his mom, her body still not moving as she waited to hear her son's voice again.

"Mom? Can you at least respond to me?"

Maddie's eyes darted around the room, from Danny to Jazz, to Jack, to the clock on the wall, the floor, the ceiling, the chair beside her, before landing back on Danny who was staring back at her, his eyes filled with worry and what appeared to be nerves. Was he afraid of her? She felt nothing to say to him, his body being almost the exact opposite of what she had thought. She never thought her son would be part ghost, she had always thought he was human, always wanted to think he had nothing to do with ghosts.

"Mom. Please, say something. Anything."

"Danny? Is it really you?"

Danny looked taken aback as his mom questioned if it was him. Jazz took a step forward, making it so that she was right by Danny's side rather than just behind his shoulder. Jack took a long gulp of his drink as Danny stuttered out an answer, his face giving a look of hurt from his mom still not completely believing him.

"I... It's... Of course, it's really me. What makes you think that it's not?"

"I think I'm just still in shock"

She froze for a moment, her mind trying to find what it wanted to say to him that would ease his nerves so he wouldn't run off as he did in the hospital.

"I think... I think it's just that I wasn't expecting my own son to be half ghost, be the ghost boy that I learned to hate. I had made myself believe that my son was completely human and had never had ghost exposure."

"But, Mom I am still your son. Do you believe that?"

Danny's voice gave signs of his fear, his body still trying to get farther away from her. She saw the ectoblaster that was clipped to her belt and that Danny's eyes kept flashing to it trying to see when she was going to pull it out on him and try to blast him. Maddie pulled it out, Jazz and Jack seeing her do so and jumping in front of Danny as he quickly stood and stumbled backward, falling over the back of the reclining chair he had been sitting in moments before. Quietly she held her hands above her head, dropping the gun on the table next to her. Jazz ran up to her side and grabbed the weapon, quickly running back to her brother as he picked himself up off the floor.

"I make you nervous, don't I?"

Maddie watched as Danny brushed himself off and stood up to his full height. He wasn't quite averagely sized for a boy his age and was still a bit shorter than his sister, his body small compared to others. Danny's body had always been on the small side of average, and Maddie saw his head peak above his sister's shoulder as she protected him. Jazz had always been protective of her brother, and now Maddie knew why.

Danny tapped his sister on the shoulder, her and Jack blocking him from talking to his mom. Jazz stepped to the side and Danny quietly slipped his body between her and his dad.

"You... you do make me nervous now, but it's because now you still seem to think that I'm just a ghost and are aiming guns at my head when I'm a ghost AND when I'm a human."

Danny twisted his forefingers together to try and calm himself down as his mom took a step forward. He felt his sister's body tense as his mom got closer to him, his Dad held an arm across Danny's body for protection. He looked at both of their faces. Jazz looked as nervous as Danny felt he looked and Jack looked like he was ready to jump to Danny's protection at any second. At least he still had these two. He looked back up at his mom to see her on the brink of tears.

"Danny, I would never shoot you. I just... I... I can't forgive myself for what I've done to you... because I can't... didn't believe that my son is the ghost boy I've been attacking for so long. I love you, as my son... but to accept that I have a ghost living in my house? I... I don't know if..."

"You don't know if you accept me."

Danny pushed his dad's arm down so that his body was revealed to his mom, out in the open and defenseless - except for his ghost powers. He took a few steps forward so that his dad and sister stood behind him and felt his body shaking as he got closer to his mom.

"Danny, what are you doing?"

Jazz hissed her question to Danny and he turned his upper body to her, raising his hands and lowering them, signaling Jazz to cool it and that he knew what he was doing. He turned back to his mom as she tried to stutter an answer to him.

"Danny, I... I would... I... accepting you is... I... I kept seeing signs that the ghost boy was close to you, but I kept telling myself I was seeing things. I forced myself to believe that you were two separate beings. I feel guilty for attacking what is now proven to be my own child."

Maddie paused, Danny looked at the floor and changing from human to ghost. He looked back up at her with glowing green eyes and a small smirk.

"I didn't think I would see... that. Especially as my son."

Maddie motioned to Danny as he closed his eyes to breathe deeply.

"I know you weren't expecting it. But I don't hate you for what you've done to me. I kept the secret from you by my own choice, and now I want you to know who I really am. Because I'm sick of lying. That, and I'm running out of excuses as to where I'm going all the time."

He laughed a little bit, looking back at his mom who's face hadn't changed.

"Danny, I still can't believe that it's you. My clumsy, dorky, geeky son becomes the strong-willed, sarcastic, brave Danny Phantom? I don't want to believe it. It doesn't feel like it would be right."

"But it is. Mom, look at me."

Danny changed back to Danny Fenton and rushed up to his mom, clutching her hands between his. He looked her in the eyes and asked for her to look at him again.

"It's really me. Jazz, Dad, Sam, and Tucker would all tell you the same thing. You now have scientific evidence that I'm partially a ghost, and still human at the same time. I am your son."

Maddie looked at Danny, finally making eye contact him, her heart melting at the sight of her little boy's eyes. She saw that same look on the ghost's face as he changed to his ghost half. Everything he had said to them via text, in the lab, in the hospital room before he left, it all began to click in Maddie's mind. This was Danny. This was her son.

"Danny. It's really you."

Maddie almost collapsed, falling into a hug with her son. He smiled at her and motioned for the rest of the family to join them, a large mob of a family hug gathering in the middle of the room. As everyone pulled away, there were finally smiles all around. Maddie sat down with some tea, Jack set his mug down after draining the rest of the liquid. Jazz and Danny plopped down on the floor, their bodies so close to each other they looked like they could have been friends rather than siblings.

"My question is how you managed to fool us for so long."

Jack looked to Danny who was laughing at his dad's question. He leaned back on his hands and looked at the ceiling for a moment.

"Honestly, Dad? I don't know. You guys must not have wanted to believe that I had contact with some ghosts and ignored what I said all the time. Jazz saw me go ghost and started helping me protect my secret identity, but to be quite honest, I have no clue how I hid myself from you guys."

He looked back at his family, pulling his head back to the center of the room. Jazz pulled her phone out and Danny saw her texting Sam and Tucker what happened, receiving a couple of happy responses a few minutes later. Danny looked at his parents.

"Wanna see something cool before I start telling you stories from my past ghost fights?"

Jack looked at Maddie, she looked to him and shrugged her shoulders.

"Might as well expose us to what you've been through."

"It might help mom to accept you even more and rid her of most of her guilt as well."

Jazz chipped in as Danny smiled to his parents' response. They were going to meet one of his favorite ghosts of all time. Danny nodded to Jazz as he lifted his hand to his mouth. A strong whistle later, and a small green puppy came dashing up the stairs from the basement.

Jack and Maddie watched the puppy tackle Danny to the ground, licking his face and nipping at his hair. The puppy was green, however, with bright red eyes and black ears. His tongue seemed to hang out of his mouth at all times, and a tiny little bark escaped his mouth, high pitched and frequent.

"Danny, what is this?"

"His name is Cujo. He's an old security dog from Axiom Labs and ended up coming back to me repeatedly until he got his squeaky toy. He's actually a pretty nice dog. Until you make him mad. Then,"

Danny pulled himself off the floor and turned to his ghost half. He pulled Cujo's squeaky toy away and hid it in his belt. He formed a new one out of ectoenergy, this one green rather than pink. Finally, as he took the green one from Cujo, he disintegrated it right before the dog's eyes. As he saw Danny destroy his toy, the dog growled, his body becoming massive. Cujo was no longer a puppy but was instead a monstrous ghost dog. Fangs and a deep bark showed themselves while green dog slobber dripping down from his mouth.

"You get this."

Danny floated up to Cujo's head and held out a pink toy.

"Here ya go, boy. You know I wouldn't destroy that toy of yours."

Danny patted Cujo on the head a couple of times, and after a few quick tail wags, the giant dog became a puppy once again, a happy look spreading across his face, Danny scratching under the dog's chin. Cujo jumped up into Danny's arms as he landed back on the ground, returning to his Fenton. He sat down on the floor, placing Cujo next to himself. Cujo quietly whimpered at Danny, his ears falling back in sadness.

"Oh, alright. Come on."

Cujo yipped once with joy and leaped into Danny's lap, turning in circles before laying down and falling asleep, his body rising and falling gently as Danny pet his coat, the texture slick and his coat being cold from his ghost core. Jack watched as Danny leaned over the puppy, hugging him close to his body as he looked back at his parents.

"So you guys want a few stories?"

"Of course. My son has been hunting ghosts all this time and has been successful while I couldn't even tell that there was a ghost living under my own roof. I gotta know how you do it!"

Jack looked so excited that Danny thought he would explode, his voice giving quivers of excitement as he waited for Danny to tell him all the stories from his ghost life. Danny smiled as he rolled his eyes, giving his sister a chance to laugh.

"Okay, okay! I'll tell you the stories!"

Danny threw his hands up in defeat before looking at his sister and giving her a small smirk and a small look of annoyance at the same time. He ended up not being able to look annoyed and just gave her a small smirk to show that he was being a jerk in a joking manner, which Jazz seemed to understand perfectly.

"Feel free to help tell the stories you know at any time Jazz. Now, where do I begin..."

"Why don't you start from the very beginning, Danny? From when you got your powers, to when you started fighting ghosts, to when you got better at it, to now."

Jazz gave her brother the idea with a small shrug at the thought and he nodded slowly to her, looking at the ceiling and trying to remember everything that happened to him and how it happened. It had been months and Danny had so many different stories to tell that he couldn't keep them all straight. Finally, he looked back at his family and began telling them stories.

"So it was only a lot of months ago..."

"Nice intro."

Jazz rolled her eyes, earning a small thump on the shoulder from Danny's right hand.

"Anyway, I guess it started when I got my powers. I ended up walking into the lab with Sam and Tucker after you guys couldn't get it the portal to work."

Danny told stories of how he became half ghost, and how he had to learn how to use his powers and not get found out by anyone. He told the tales of how he was only just gaining control when he got attacked by ghosts, how the ectopuses attacked right behind his dad's back and he was still able to fight them and not be found out. Then he told stories of the Lunch Lady and of Skulker, Dora, and Cujo, the Box Ghost and Walker, the Ghost Writer and of Plasmius - not mentioning that it was his dad's best college friend. Danny told tales of Wulf, Clockwork, Dan Phantom, and of Poindexter, Desiree and Amorpho. Each one gaining more and more looks of excitement from his dad, more and more looks of acceptance from his mom as he continued to tell the family each and every ghost story he remembered. He felt himself giving Jazz glad looks as she put her own opinion in or told parts of the story that Danny didn't remember quite as well if at all.

"I guess that brings us to where we are right now."

Danny looked down at Cujo, now laying on the floor chewing his toy, before looking at his parents again, Jazz leaning up against him in an attempt to show that she was proud of him for finally telling them who he was.

"Danny, I could not be more proud of my little boy. You're not just trying to help people, you're an official hero."

Maddie's eyes were filled with tears as she looked at Danny, proud of his stories of defeating ghost after ghost, including himself. He looked at her, his eyes filled with joy as he saw that she was accepting of him at last. He laughed a bit.

"The whole town thinks I'm a hero. The billboards advertise me as a reason to visit Amity Park."

"Not to mention that you are always going way out of your way to pull off the cheesy superhero look."

Jazz nudged Danny as he smiled. His voice deepened as he held his hands to his hips and sat up straight.

"You got that right, citizen!"

Both the kids laughed and the parents both smiled, each one wanting to know what brought Danny to become a hero with his powers.

"So, Danny-boy, what made you want to be a hero with your powers."

"Oh man, that's easy. My first ghost fight. My first real fight, anyway. The one with the Lunch Lady. After fighting with her, I finally figured out what these powers were for. And I've been protecting the city ever since."

Jack beamed as his son stood up, Cujo jumping to his feet and following Danny everywhere he went.

"Wanna see how I get rid of a ghost?"

He picked up the thermos containing Youngblood and motioned it towards the lab where the portal was waiting for him. Danny smiled as his dad jumped up from the couch, slowly followed by Maddie a few steps behind him and Jazz wandering after the three of them, picking up the living room from the mess they had made while Danny told stories. Blankets were spread around the room and mugs filled with tea sat on the tables.

"I'll be down in a minute, Danny. You take Mom and Dad to show them how you do things. I already know and need to clean this messy living room up."

"Heh heh, sure thing, Jazz. I'll show them how this works and then we can all join up again back here. That sound good?"

Danny saw Jazz smile as she turned away.

"Perfect, little brother."

Danny ran down the stairs, quickly followed by his parents until he made it to the portal to the Ghost Zone. He lifted the thermos from his side and placed it upside down in a small space next to the controls. It lit up a light blue and a green beam on the side of the thermos drained at a moderate pace. The doors to the portal opened and the ghost was forcefully sent back into the Ghost Zone, a cry of surprise being heard by the Fentons. Danny smiled and removed the thermos from the drain port, explaining to his parents how he did it.

"So now that the ghost is back in the Ghost Zone, he's most likely going to be captured by Walker and his goons and locked up in Walker's Jail for a while. He's obsessed with rules, so I won't be attacked by him again for a while. Now that the ghosts are always showing up here, I'm pretty famous in both worlds."

Danny proudly crossed his arms over his chest, a proud smile showing on his face as he stood himself up with perfect posture. Jack clapped him on the shoulder as Danny released his pose. Maddie looked at the portal as it closed with a curious look.

"So how do the ghosts have a gender?"

"I don't know. But they do. I mean, generally, they can be seen from how they address each other, and I haven't met one that doesn't have a gender. I mean, Skulker's girlfriend is Ember, and Kitty's boyfriend is Johnny13, and Spectra shows herself as a woman, but Undergrowth says that he's a guy. They all seem to have ideas of who they are."

Danny turned his head to the side for a moment, considering what the ghosts really were.

"None of them are actual people except for Poindexter, and maybe Kitty and Johnny 13, but other than that they're all just ghosts. Each one of them that I've fought is a complex mass of ectoenergy with a partial human resemblance. I think. I don't really know. I'm not a scientist like you guys, and I'm not very smart. But I do know that each of them seems to have a human mind, giving them a personality and I guess a gender. So I'm not exactly certain, but I guess that's an answer?"

Danny shrugged.

"I don't pay it much attention. Just make sure they don't cause much trouble."

Maddie nodded slowly, not quite understanding where her question had come from, or what Danny had said. But he had been right, he wasn't exactly a genius, he was an average student and capable of doing things that other students couldn't do. She proudly smiled at him.

"I see. Maybe there's an explanation behind it. But maybe it's just something that shouldn't be dwelled on."

"You got that right! Come on, Danny, Mads, let's go meet with Jazz."

Danny walked ahead of his parents, finding his sister sitting in the chair reading her book just like when he got back from fighting Youngblood. She lifted her eyes to him and smiled.

"I'm guessing things went well with them downstairs?"

"Yeah. They should be right behind me."

Before Jazz cold respond Jack and Maddie were sitting on the couch each one hugging Danny before they sat down. Cujo was running circles around the room with his toy in his mouth. Jazz had tossed it for him a few times and as he started to wear himself out Cujo laid down to sleep.

"Can we keep him?"

Danny begged his parents who just shrugged at him.

"I suppose... But he's your responsibility, Danny."

Maddie pulled off a stern mom look as her son got the puppy he had wanted since he was five.

"Sweet! Thanks, guys!"

"Danny. I'm beyond amazed and proud of you."

"I know, Mom. I know."

Danny smiled as he looked out the window, his ghost sense going off, which forced him to sigh and hand Cujo's belongings to Jazz.

"Here. You can put these in my room. I gotta go fight that ghost before he destroys half the town like usual. I'm going ghost!"

The usual rings appeared at Danny's waist as he forced his ghost core to show the ghostly alter ego he possessed within himself. He floated up above the floor by about a foot and high-fived his dad as he looked over to Jazz, who was just opening her mouth.

"I'll be careful, Jazz. I promise. It's probably just Plasmius again. You know how often he and I fight and how I win every single time."

"I know. Just please, try not to destroy too much this time."

"I don't destroy everything, the other ghost does. I can't help it if a giant nutcracker finds it fun to smash me THROUGH a building!"

"I'm just teasing. I'll take care of Cujo. You just get rid of that jerky Plasmius. See you when you get home."

"I am home, Jazz. I am home."

Danny smiled to Jazz and waved to his parents as he floated up and flew off with insane speeds, his body phasing right through the ceiling and walls. His mind wandered as he floated around looking for Plasmius and trying to keep the town from being destroyed. Danny smiled and began thinking out loud as he spotted Plasmius floating above a building he had just lit on fire with his ghost rays.

"This whole town is my home. I found my home. Now that my parents know, I finally feel at home."

Danny destroyed Vlad as he usually did, a few punches throwing him across town before Plasmius fled for Wisconsin. Slowly Danny flew home before floating just above the floor in the kitchen. His parents and Jazz were making dinner while they waited for him to get back, and Danny laughed as he landed himself on the counter, staying far to the side and out of his family's way.

"I'm back! Now, what's for dinner? I'm starving."

Jazz smirked at her brother and ruffled his hair. Jack beamed and asked how the fight went. Maddie smiled and walked over to Danny, setting down the towel she was holding from wiping her hands off. She had finally accepted him and let him know it. She looked him up and down for a moment as Jazz welcomed him home.

"Welcome home, Danny Phantom."

"Thanks."

Danny looked at his parents again, a little nervous as they didn't say much, besides Jack asking more questions than Danny could answer. Maddie quietly closed her eyes and took a deep breath. What she said after that gave Danny a big smile and reassured him that she was accepting of him.

"Welcome home, son."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This took forever to write, but I think I'm finally happy with it. I didn't exactly know how to end this, but I guess that this works. This was a ton of work to try and get some emotion out of, and to get it to a decent length, you know, longer than a couple hundred words. I feel bad for writing this story this way since it could have had a ton of extremely different endings, but this was what I had in my mind as an idea when I first started writing this, so now it's a story that I'm quite pleased with since my works generally aren't this long or complicated. I'm probably going to be doing more works like this - longer and more complex with more emotion to them kind of stories. I'm hoping to have them in progress ASAP and post them when I have at least an idea of where the story is going so that I can post something that will be finished. I hope you enjoyed this story and I'm always looking for advice and thoughts on how I can improve my writing. I'm working on a couple of works right now, but none of them really have an ending yet... but when they do I'll try and have them up. Once again, I hope you enjoyed reading this and I will be writing my next work soon!


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